To Know a Brother's Love
by Meridas
Summary: They weren't always the Marauders, but they were always best friends, even brothers, through ten years of pranks and war and life. Presenting Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs, with appearances of lovely Lily and others we know so well. T for later.
1. Will You Look at That

The Train

Sirius Black scampered onto the train at the first opportunity. His parents barely noticed, too busy talking pompously with some no doubt prestigious, pure-blood family; Sirius only paused a moment to wave to his little brother. Regulus waved back sadly, and then Sirius turned away and went to find a place to sit.

Having escaped his parents so early, he found an empty compartment with ease. As he stowed his trunk, he wondered gloomily if anyone would sit with him, or if his seven years at school were doomed to be as lonely as his eleven years at home.

Then his compartment door burst open and he whirled around.

"Oh." A skinny kid with a shock of black hair and lopsided glasses grinned nervously at him. "Hi! Um, can I sit here? D'you mind?"

"No," Sirius said, surprised. "Go ahead."

"Thanks," the boy said brightly, lugging his trunk inside. Unlike Sirius, he had worn Muggle clothing to the platform. Sirius balled up his black cloak and tossed it in the corner of his seat, grateful that he'd put up a fight that morning to wear his new school clothes instead of the stiffly embroidered Black family robes. If he couldn't change his name, he didn't want to make a first impression that supported the stories. He had never made a friend his age before — his parents always yanked him away from Muggle children, and any young wizard he met balked as soon as they heard his name. Sirius eyed the black-haired boy thoughtfully. It was possible he wouldn't know about the Blacks…

The boy finished stowing his trunk and flopped down into a seat. He straightened his glasses and held out his hand. "James Potter, by the way."

"I'm Sirius," he replied, shaking the offered hand. The Potters knew about the Blacks, all right — Sirius' parents would fully expect him to become this boy's sworn enemy. So right then and there Sirius decided, with what would be far from his last fit of rebelliousness, that he would certainly not.

"Nice to meet you," James grinned. He actually hadn't stopped grinning, except when his tongue had poked between his teeth as he'd hefted his trunk onto the rack above the seats. The smile was infectious and Sirius felt himself beginning to grin as well. "Hey, do you follow a Quidditch team?"

Sirius thought about all his brother's prattling on the subject. "Um, I guess England… they got a new Seeker, right?"

James gave him a mock-pitying look. "Allow me to be the first to begin your Hogwarts education, my friend."

Sirius laughed aloud, marveling at James' quick claim of friendship. Could they stay friends, even once Sirius was shunted off into his family's House? They'd have to see, but Sirius felt happier already than he had in a long time, as James rambled on about Quidditch teams. Sirius managed to steer the conversation to the sport itself, and flying, which he himself was actually quite good at.

As the train pulled out of the station, a couple other first-years sat down at the other half of their compartment. Sirius didn't pay them much attention until he heard the mention of Houses.

"You'd better be in Slytherin," the boy said. He had dark hair and looked sort of scrawny, with pale skin and black eyes.

Sirius had intended to keep ignoring them, but James looked around. "Slytherin?" he echoed. "Who wants to be in Slytherin? I think I'd leave, wouldn't you?" he asked Sirius.

For once Sirius didn't smile back. "My whole family have been in Slytherin," he said.

"Blimey," said James, "and I thought you seemed alright!" But he grinned again, his eyes still dancing. He was just teasing, Sirius realized. Knowing about a Slytherin family didn't faze him.

So Sirius grinned back after all. "Maybe I'll break the tradition," he said brazenly. _Good god, if Mum heard me say that… _"Where are you heading, if you've got the choice?" he asked, though he already had his suspicions about the answer.

James lifted an invisible sword. "'Gryffindor, where dwell the brave at heart!' Like my dad."

The sallow boy — Sirius had almost forgotten about him — made a small, disparaging noise. James turned on him, the smile going dim.

"Got a problem with that?"

"No," the boy said, with a sneer that reminded Sirius horribly of his cousin Bellatrix. "If you'd rather be brawny than brainy—"

"Where're you hoping to go, seeing as you're neither?" interjected Sirius.

James roared with laughter. Sirius grinned at him. The girl sat up, rather flushed, and looked at them both with dislike. Sirius thought quite cheerfully that the feeling could be mutual. She and her creepy, sneering little friend.

"Come on, Severus," she said, "let's find another compartment."

"Oooooo…" Sirius and James imitated her at the same time. She ignored them, nose in the air; James tried to trip the boy as he passed.

"See ya, Snivellus!" Sirius called happily as the compartment door slammed.

James snickered. "Snivellus."

Sirius shrugged. "Severus, Slytherin, Snivellus…"

James laughed again. "I hope that girl's not in Slytherin with him," he said with a hint of disgust in his voice. That note would only become more prevalent over the years, but for now Sirius just snorted.

"Why? What about her?"

"Well, she was crying when she came in here… and if her friends think she ought to be in Slytherin, obviously she needs new ones…"

Sirius chuckled, agreeing. The two boys continued their banter as if they had known each other for years, swapping stories and, when the food trolley came by, trading food and Chocolate Frog Cards. The sky was just darkening beyond the window when a soft knock on the compartment door caught their attention. "Excuse me," a quiet, calm voice said. Sirius glanced up at the new boy. He was very slight, with sandy hair and pale skin. He looked a bit ill, but he smiled shyly at them. "Does this owl belong to either of you? She got into my compartment…"

"Hey, yeah!" James jumped up and took the bird gently. "What're you doing?" he asked as if the owl would reply. "Hey, wait!" he added as the other boy started to leave. James shifted the owl to his shoulder and held out his hand. "Thanks. James Potter."

The boy shook his hand hesitantly. "I—I'm Remus Lupin."

"Have a seat," Sirius invited.

"Have some food," James added with a grin. "Sirius thought he could eat it all…"

Remus Lupin said down slowly. He glanced at Sirius and James, and gave a slow, small smile. "Are you both first years?" he asked.

James and Sirius both nodded. "Know any spells yet?" Remus asked more eagerly. "I've read through some of my school books, and my dad let me try a couple spells when Mum wasn't looking…" he blushed and stopped talking.

"You'll be in Ravenclaw," James said with amusement. "I know a couple, yeah. So your dad's a wizard?"

Remus nodded. "I'm halfblood on both sides. You?"

"Pureblood," they both replied: James casually, Sirius distastefully. The other two boys looked at him with surprise. Sirius shifted uncomfortably. But neither of them asked him his surname; they launched back into discussion about the school books they'd looked through. Sirius relaxed again, listened to them, and laughed and claimed that he was allergic to books — which made James laugh and Remus toll his eyes — and before he knew it, the train was stopping in the station.

A nervous silence fell over the three boys as they left their trunks and animals with the others, and gathered into a group with the other first-years. Most of the students were making for a line of carriages, but a huge, booming voice caused Sirius, James and Remus to jump and turn away from the queue. "Firs' years! Firs' years, over here! Ri' then, le's get goin'."

Sirius, James, and Remus stuck close together in the throng of first years. The nervous whispering was starting to get to Sirius. At his left side he saw James fiddling in his pockets. He pulled out a couple items which glinted in the faint light, but it was too dark for Sirius to make out what exactly they were. But he could see the mischievous smirk on the other boy's face, and he felt an uncontrollable grin on his face as he scooted closer to Remus. The next time he glanced at James, the bespectacled boy walked along calmly with his hands in his pockets. He and Sirius carefully avoided each other's gazes as they walked.

A loud croak and louder shrieks made Sirius whirl around. A dark shape launched itself into the air, briefly outlined in the faint light, gangly limbs splayed wildly.

"Giant toad!" a girl shrieked.

"No, giant Chocolate Frog!"

"Catch it!" cried a smaller-than-average boy, whose straw-colored hair gleamed in the lantern-light.

"Don't get my robes dirty!" wailed a dark-eyed girl, running away from the giant frog. It croaked again, leaping away from the first-years and off into the woods.

"Aw, we let it get away!" several people sounded disappointed. Others were giggling nervously, others laughing hysterically. James and Sirius were among these. Remus looked intrigued as well as amused.

"How'd you do that?" he asked in a low voice as the gamekeeper kept herding them along.

"Growth Potion," James muttered, still grinning. "I nicked a couple interesting things from my dad's office before I left home."

Sirius snickered. "And you didn't use it on yourself, short stuff?"

James elbowed Sirius in the ribs while Remus chuckled at their antics.

"Four to a boat now, an' try not ta turn yerselves over." They had reached a vast, glittering lake. Sirius clambered aboard on of the small boats with his two new friends, joining the straw-haired boy who had wanted to catch the giant chocolate frog. He grinned nervously at them as the boats began to glide across the lake of their own accord.

"Hi there," James said, smiling back. "I'm James Potter. That's Remus Lupin and Sirius something-or-other."

"Peter," the boy replied. "Peter Pettigrew."

"Oi," Remus said softly. "Will you look at that."

Sirius looked up as the boat rounded a bend in the water, and the world opened up before him. Never before had Sirius Black been at loss for words, but he was now. There was a nameless feeling in his stomach as he, James, Remus, and Peter caught their first glimpse of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. If he'd been asked about it later, Sirius might have forgotten all about it — but at that moment, for the first time in his life, he had the strangest feeling that he was coming home.

* * *

><p><em>Author's note: Hi there, so this is my first venture out of the land of Fire Emblem fics, but I do love these four characters — even Peter, to an extent, it intrigues me how he was once trusted even more than Remus. So, I thought I'd like my own go at the years of the Marauders at school. <em>_**To disclaim once and for all**__: I can only aspire to be as awesome and famous as JKR, but I will never be her, so none of these characters, setting, blah blah blah belongs to me. Some of the writing comes directly from the book in this chapter, the conversation with Snape and Lily on the train. Anyway, yes, this story will be partially borrowed and I'll stick to the canon as much as I remember, and feel free to let me know if I miss anything. __**Also**__, I don't own the song 'Angels on the Moon', from which the title of this story was derived — it belongs to the awesome band Thriving Ivory. In case anyone wonders, the full verse says "This is to one last day in the shadows, and to know a brother's love. This is to New York City angels, and the rivers of our blood. This is to all of us."_

_P.S. — to anybody who's looking for A Reason to Fight, I promise I haven't given up. I recently reread the HP books and these little feral plotbunnies attacked me, so this is getting them out of my system. I can multitask, I promise._


	2. Where We Belong

The Sorting

"Black, Sirius!"

Sirius wanted to glance back at James Potter, but he resisted. They probably wouldn't be in the same House, anyway; they'd get Sorted into Slytherin and Gryffindor, and that would be the end to any hope of a real friendship.

Sirius raised his chin, and marched forward as if he wasn't nervous at all. As if he didn't feel like he was about to throw up. As if his hands weren't shaking as he pulled the Sorting Hat onto his head.

The black cloth fell all the way over his eyes. A tiny voice mumbled in his ear, but he couldn't make out the words at first.

Then he heard quite clearly: "Are you sure you're a Black?"

Sirius almost laughed. _No, _he thought wryly.

"Well, there is definitely pride in here, but that's courage if I ever saw it. There's a streak of vengeance, though, and recklessness that you'll want to watch out for." Sirius held his breath. _C'mon, Hat, you just said I wasn't like the rest of them… _"Oh, but you already knew that, boy, you've known that for quite some time. Never wanted to be in Slytherin, did you? No, I think you're right. Slytherin has set many of your kin on the path to greatness, but you have your sights set elsewhere, I see… Yes, and I can see you're daring. Brains, too, but far too much mischief for Ravenclaw… and very little inclination to study, I see… Well, then I've made up my mind. GRYFFINDOR!"

…

"Secrets, eh?"

Remus clenched the sides of the stool.

"Well, well, you seem up to the challenge," the Hat murmured. "I think Ravenclaw for you, perhaps, perhaps…" Remus' heart couldn't decide if he was elated or disappointed. _James was right, _he thought, and settled on a tiny bit of disappointment. _But he'll be in Gryffindor, with Sirius…_

"Yes, quite the little scholar here, and miles of talent, but this determination might go better elsewhere. You've taken quite a burden on yourself, to keep other people safe. Selfless bravery, might be the hardest kind; and no one will ever know how brave you are, yet you do it anyway…"

Remus didn't feel brave, especially now that the Hat seemed to be changing its mind. Even it couldn't decide where he belonged. Remus' hands clenched white around the edges of the stool; he felt sick, certain now that any moment, someone was going to snatch the Hat off his head, take his wand and his books and his chance, and send him off, telling him that he had no right to be here, he'd been stupid to think otherwise…

"Nonsense!" the Hat barked, making him jump. "All you need, boy, is a boost of confidence. I believe you have a friend waiting for you — go on, take your place with GRYFFINDOR!"

…

"Difficult, this one."

Peter licked his lips nervously. _What's that supposed to mean?_

"It means I'm not sure where to put you, Pettigrew. Ambition, but not much direction just yet… you want to prove yourself, but do you have the courage?"

_Yes! _Peter thought desperately. _Yes, I do! I will! I swear it, I just need a chance!_

There was a long quiet while the Hat mumbled too low for Peter to hear. He chewed his lip nervously. _Um… if it makes any difference to you, I'd really like to be in Gryffindor._

"Oh you would, would you? I've heard that before, young Pettigrew…"

_But I can be brave! _He sat up straighter, thinking about the three boys he'd ridden in the boat with — two of them already sat at Gryffindor, and the one with glasses, James, would surely follow.

"I have a question for you, Peter Pettigrew… if I put you in Hufflepuff, or perhaps Slytherin… would you still befriend those two Gryffindors?"

_Yes, _Peter told the Hat instantly. _Yes, I would, I realize I don't know much but I definitely know that. We're going to be friends if I have anything to say about it, whether you put me in their House or not!_

"Hm… that's more like it. I think you'll find the people you need in GRYFFINDOR!"

…

"Ha! No questions here, a bright mind and the nerve to use it — what are you still doing here? GRYFFINDOR!"

James yanked the Hat off, grinning wildly, wondering if it heard his elation before he dashed away. He flung himself into the seat beside Sirius. "This is fantastic!" he exclaimed under cover of the applause for "Rodriguez, Hannah." "We'll have classes and dorms and everything together! Brilliant!"

Sirius was grinning, too, and shooting looks at the Slytherin table. James followed his glance and noticed half of the table glaring over at the newest Black wizard. James snickered and elbowed Sirius in the ribs. He had a feeling that the conflict between these two Houses was about to escalate.

He turned his attention back to his new friends, and the food which had just appeared. He piled food onto his plate, then noticed that Remus hadn't moved.

"Oi," Sirius said thickly, and chucked a roll across the table at Remus. "Wake up and eat something."

Remus jumped, and gave them a strained smile. "Sorry." He reached for several dishes, and raised his eyebrows at Sirius. "I hope that won't develop into your normal method of catching my attention."

Sirius seemed to consider the statement as he gnawed on a chicken leg. James shot him another amused look, positive that the "Noble and Most Ancient House of Black" — or whatever that motto was, he couldn't remember if that was it exactly — had upheld better table manners. He glanced again at the Slytherin table, and saw a blond girl with aristocratic Black features pushing the chicken away with a disgusted look on her face.

"Well," Sirius finally swallowed his food and replied. "Probably not. I mean, I won't always have a roll handy, and there may be times when I have a roll but I'd rather eat it than throw it at you…"

The four boys laughed together for the first time — but James already knew it wouldn't be the last.

* * *

><p><em>Author's note: Don't get used to updates twice a day! I already had a couple things written down, but once I run out we'll be on to once a day, maybe. Anyway, the boy's Sorting promised to be interesting, so I hope I did it justice. I based this off of the pieces in the books where it says that sometimes the Hat takes a while to decide, whereas sometimes it barely has to touch the kid's head. I also thought, personally, that Peter might have had an experience like Harry's, where he could have made an excellent Slytherin or Hufflepuff — a lot of people seem to think that that's where he should have gone — but the Hat did put him in Gryffindor. His was kind of hard to write, and you could take it a number of ways, I guess... I thought that this way, though, one could either assume that Peter was already a bit of a rat, and knew that James and Sirius were the ones to hang around - or one could assume that at one point, Peter was just a kid who really wanted to cling to the only people he already knew, that he might actually have been a good friend at one point; that's what I tend to think, since the other Marauders trusted him without question, and would have died for him. Also, in the end, he died because he saved James' son. At least that's the way I think of it. I could be misreading, but that gives me something to go on when I write about the four of them being best friends at school.<em>

_ Anyway, now that they're all Sorted, let the marauding mayhem of Hogwarts begin…_


	3. First Order of Business

"First order of business," James panted as they skidded around a corner and dashed for the classroom. "Find all the bleeding — _shortcuts _in this place."

Remus laughed breathily. "I'll settle — for knowing where the vanishing stairs are — and the fake doors."

Sirius wrenched open the door, and the four young Gryffindors darted inside.

"Barnes, Robert…"

"Here!"

"Black, Sirius…"

"Here!" Sirius piped, waving his hand wildly in the air. "Just in time," he whispered gleefully as the four of them slid into unoccupied desks at the back of the room.

James sighed and let his head fall on to his desk with a soft _thunk_. The first day of classes had felt more like a race than anything: get lost, start running, find the room, write as fast as you can to keep up with the teacher's lecture, say the spells as many times as you can to try to get it right, hear the bell and dash off… and repeat. James felt as though he had pure adrenaline instead of blood in him by this point; he wasn't able to sit still, his mind whizzing in circles thinking about turning his matchstick into a needle — he'd managed it first, right before Sirius and Remus — prodding the fire below his cauldron, trying to get it to reignite before Slughorn came round again… now there would be more note-taking. James had glanced through the textbook for History of Magic, and found it mildly interesting for about five minutes. He knew that there would be no practical magic in this class. He got his wand out anyway, because he liked having it on his desk. He glanced over at his friends, running a hand through his hair. Remus was getting out his books, but Peter was still staring toward the front of the room. "Um, guys…" he whispered, "the teacher's a _ghost._"

James looked up, and grinned. "Oh, yeah, I remember my mum telling me about Binns. They say that he fell asleep in the staffroom one day, and died there. Then he got up and went on to class, didn't even notice he was a ghost!"

Remus' eyebrows looked in danger of disappearing into his sandy fringe; Peter's eyes widened and he stared avidly at Binns; Sirius stuffed his fist in his mouth to muffle his snickers. James grinned and stretched in his chair.

Binns finished with roll call and launched right into the day's lecture. There was no introduction, nothing: he just started right off with the First Confederation of Wizards.

Normally James had an excellent attention span and memory, and so far all four of them had taken good notes in their other classes that day — but by halfway through the hour, he and Sirius were fighting a ferocious doodle war on Sirius' abandoned notes, while Peter's head drooped to his desk. Only Remus managed to take notes for the whole class — though once in a while, when James glanced around, he noticed Remus' eyes growing glassy. Then the young bookworm would shake himself and begin scribbling again.

When the bell rang, a mass scramble for the door ensued. James zoomed out into the hallway with Sirius on his heels, then had to wait while Remus packed away his notes. "What's next?" Sirius asked James while they waited. He'd already misplaced his course schedule, but since they all had the same classes he'd fallen back on asking his dorm mates.

James fished in his bag and found the schedule as Remus and Peter joined them.

"That," Remus declared, "is the most boring class ever."

"We haven't even had half our other classes yet," James pointed out, just to be contrary.

Remus shot him a look at said he knew full well the black-haired boy was arguing for no good reason. James grinned at him. "I don't need to take the other classes. I already know."

"I'm just going to read the textbook from now on," James announced as he scanned his schedule. "I won't be able to stay awake in that room all year. It's lunch now!" he exclaimed happily. "Race you to the Great Hall!"

"Mr. Potter," came a crisp Scottish accent just behind him, "please refrain from dashing madly through the halls when you know precisely where you're going."

James swapped his guilty expression for a bright smile. "Yes, Professor McGonagall!"

She eyed him like a hawk for a moment, before nodding and sweeping away. James let out a gusty sigh of relief. Sirius laughed at him.

"I repeat," James declared, "the first order of business is to discover the secret passages in this school."

"No," Sirius disagreed, clapping his hands together. "The first order of business, whether McGonagall likes it or not, is food! Forward march! To the Great Hall!"

* * *

><p><em>Author's note: so what I can't really decide is, should this turn into an actual story - or collection of short stories, rather, because I will so not write twenty chapters for each year - or just be some days or phases that I feel inclined to write, the ones that might've been important. Hm. Well, let me know what you think, and I'll see if I can think of at least some semblance of a plot just in case.<em>


	4. Invisible

"The weekend!" Sirius cried, flinging his bag away from him as if it carried the plague. He leapt into his bed, twisting midair to fall on his back with a thump and a bounce. He sighed gustily. "_Finally._"

"School's not that bad," Remus said defensively.

"Yeah, but Professor Lambern is a moron," James said dismissively. "If I learn anything from him this year that I haven't learned already from Dad…"

"But he won't be here next year," Sirius yawned.

"Why d'you say that?" Peter asked.

"Job's jinxed," Sirius drawled. "No one can keep it for more than a year."

"Yes, well," Remus said briskly, "in the meantime he's given us loads of homework this weekend—"

"We can do that Sunday," James cut him off, excitement bubbling up inside him. "This weekend marks the first time we explore the castle of Hogwarts together."

His friends looked up at him with a range of emotions: an already-familiar mix of anticipation from Sirius, Peter's inevitable confusion, and the wary excitement in Remus' eyes. The sandy-haired boy was the first to speak.

"How," he began, setting his book bag aside, "do you suggest we do that? I ask because you've got that look about you, James, that makes me think you won't be confining our exploration to the school hours."

James put on his best innocent look. Remus and Sirius snorted.

"Alright, alright," James caved. "And remind me to quit feeding Rem here dictionaries for breakfast, Sirius." He grinned at his friends. "It'll be best at night! Nobody to get in the way, the whole castle open!"

"Aside from getting caught and put in detention," Sirius said thoughtfully, "that sounds great. I think it's worth the risk!"

James shook his head, grinning, and bounded over to his trunk. "Not going to happen," he sang. "So, first," he announced, unlocking his trunk, "you're all about to be sworn to secrecy…"

Remus made a funny noise in his throat. James looked up at him, but he smiled slightly. "Sorry. Go on."

"Okay." James rummaged around in his trunk. His hands encountered the odd fabric he was looking for and he allowed a shiver to ghost up his spine. He'd thought since his first glimpse of the Cloak that it looked — and felt — like moonlight made material. "You can't tell _anybody_," he warned. "Nobody at all, ever. It's a Potter family secret, passed down for a long time…"

"Just show us, James!" Sirius burst out. James grinned and withdrew the Invisibility Cloak reverently.

Remus gasped. Sirius sat bolt upright. Peter's mouth fell open. "Is that what I think it is?" Sirius asked in a hushed voice.

"That depends," James said. "Do you solemnly swear—"

"Yes!" his three dorm-mates shouted impatiently.

"We won't tell anyone, James," Remus promised, "now, is that an Invisibility Cloak."

In answer, James stood up and whirled the Cloak over his head.

His friends gasped again and stared at him — or rather, where he had been. James grinned to himself and crept carefully across the room, careful not to disturb the various belongings strewn about the floor — most of them Sirius'. Sirius and Peter were still gaping at the foot of James' bed; only Remus glanced around the rest of the room, suspicion mingling with the awe in his face. James decided to pretend for a moment that he was telepathic, and sent Remus the silent warning to stay discreet as he eased a pillow off of the floor by Sirius' bed. Remus' eyes widened, and he bit his lip to keep from smiling.

James swung the pillow with all his strength. It creamed Sirius in the back of the head, sending the Black boy flying across the room — mostly because he shouted in shock and shot off the bed like a firework. Peter screamed, too, and fell backwards off his own bed. Remus doubled over laughing, and James' invisibility did him no good at all, because they could all hear him roaring with laughter.

Sirius stalked over and pulled the Cloak away from James. One black-haired boy grinned at the other: Sirius' grey eyes were huge, but excitement was quickly taking over the surprise. "I'm going to get you for that," he promised with vengeful glee. He ran the Cloak curiously between his fingers. "So, will this cover four of us?"

"I'm sure it will," James declared. "At least it will this year — and by the time we're too tall, we'll know all the secret passageways anyway, won't we?"

Remus raised his eyebrows at the two of them. "What on earth have I gotten myself into?" he sighed, but he was smiling.

…

"Sirius, we're in the Charms corridor."

"No, not anymore, this is getting closer to the trophy room…"

"Why've you been to the trophy room? Isn't that where lots of people do detentions?"

"Yes, exactly."

"You haven't had a detention already?"

"Keep your hair on, Mum, I haven't. I'm just familiarizing myself with the territory. I'll probably need to know how to get there, you know. James, shut up, someone's going to hear you."

"I give you until next weekend before you've got detention," James whispered back, smothering his laughter.

Sirius' face was hard to see in the dim light of the hallway. The torches had all been extinguished, the magical lamps had gone dark, the sun had gone down past the windows. Hogwarts looked different at night — less like a school, more like an abandoned castle from a myth. It wasn't so hard, at night, to imagine the ancient people who must have walked the same halls James and his friends now crept down. He wondered if Godric Gryffindor had ever done this — but he'd helped build the school, no reason to explore it. Still, James thought, he knew every inch of his house — didn't mean he had stopped wandering around it in the wee hours of the morning. James had never seemed to need much sleep. He would always rather be doing something.

"I can go two weeks without getting my first detention," Sirius mumbled.

James grinned. "Want to bet?"

The black-haired boy shot him a calculating look. "A Galleon says I'm free till at least next Monday."

"You're so on."

"You're so doomed," Remus chuckled.

"Which one of us?" James asked.

Remus turned and grinned at them. "Both of you. No matter who wins the bet, I imagine that your first detention is going to be a double one."

"Oh, really?" Sirius reached out and tousled Remus' hair before the other boy could duck away. "What if it's a quadruple detention?"

"Sh!" Peter hissed suddenly. The boys froze.

Shuffling footsteps could be heard around the next corner. "Under the Cloak!" James breathed, and flung it over the four of them. They shuffled back until they were pressed against the wall, squished together under the Invisibility Cloak like four little sardines.

A hunched and grumbling figure swung around into the hall. Bulbous eyes peered down the corridor, gleaming in the lantern-light. James held his breath. He could feel Sirius' heart beating madly against his shoulder blade. Peter was shaking; slowly, James gripped the smaller boy's wrist. _Don't freak out, _he prayed as if his friends could hear him. _Just… don't… freak… out…_

Painfully slowly, the caretaker and his cat prowled down the hallway. As Mrs. Norris passed them, she turned her enormous yellow eyes right on them, and meowed.

James felt on the verge of a heart attack. His father had never mentioned: _did the Cloak work on cats? _Could that infernal little beast see them, or smell them, or—?

"No one here, my sweet," came the dry, creaky voice. "Not just yet, oh no, but they'll be out and about… and we'll catch them, don't you worry…"

To James' everlasting relief, the cat followed at her master's heels.

Remus' shaky sigh breathed in James' ear. "Can we go back now?" he whispered.

"Yeah," James agreed, "yep, I think that's good for tonight… let's go…"

They kept the Cloak on as they made their way back to the common room. Peter was elected to go and tell the Fat Lady the password, and that he'd been in the hospital wing. That woman was far too nosy for a painting, James thought reproachfully as he, Sirius, and Remus snuck past her.

In the safety of their dormitory, the four boys were delighted about their first adventure. Even Remus sat up with them, grinning as they planned out the rest of the weekend's misdeeds in a blank journal by wandlight. At nearly three in the morning, James hid the book at the bottom of his trunk, under his Invisibility Cloak.

"One thing, guys," Remus yawned as they got into bed. "I think… we need to make a map."

* * *

><p><em>Author's Note:<em>

_First of all, thanks so much to Miss EMT, yeahitsirine, IceBlueCrystal, DobbysArmy and Anon for leaving a review or two! I'm glad you guys like the story, and thanks for your opinions on which way I should take this. I've decided after all to leave it at a series of moments throughout the years. I'm not sure how many I'll do for each year — I guess however many moments demand to be written. _

_So the second part of their adventure, fittingly enough, was written while I'm supposed to be in bed. Hope it doesn't reflect my lack of sleep too much._

_On a side note, it's quite fun to write this stuff to French music : )_

_Thanks again and see you guys next time, hope you enjoy the latest marauder moment._


	5. One Month at a Time

Remus' heart sank as he gazed at his calendar. It was only the second week of school. It was so soon! They'd never buy his excuses this early. He'd had one plan, already arranged with his parents and the staff: his mother was supposed to be sick, and he'd go visit her once a month.

He bit his lip. Yes, second week of term was too early for that… he frowned at the darkening window, thinking… It was raining and windy outside. Remus smiled.

…

"Remus!" His friends — they'd put up a fuss when he'd tried to avoid calling them friends, and now Remus used the word naturally… but it still seemed incredible, wonderful, that he had friends. But he did, and they were staring at him as he shut the dormitory door behind him.

"What the hell?" Sirius yelped. "Where were you? Why're you soaked?"

"It's raining," Remus pointed out innocently.

"Not in the castle!" James exclaimed, rolling his eyes. "We figured you were in the library!"

"I went for a walk," Remus said truthfully.

"In the rain?"

"I like the rain."

"Without your cloak?"

"I forgot it."

"Remus," Peter piped up, "you're going to catch a cold."

_Exactly. _"Don't worry about me." He crossed to his trunk and pulled out his pajamas. Shivering, he exchanged them for his soaking robes.

"You could've let us come," James muttered. "We've been in here doing _homework._ I hate homework."

"And it's worse without Remus," Sirius mumbled. Remus himself glanced up at that, eyebrows raised. Sirius' quill ambled across his parchment in a fashion that made Remus suspect the black-haired boy was doodling rather than mapping stars. "He know all the right answers."

"Hey," James protested mildly. "I'm right most of the time."

"But Remmy's right _all _of the time."

"Don't jinx it," Remus told him. "And don't call me Remmy."

"What d'you mean, jinx it?" Sirius frowned, bewildered.

Remus shook his head. "Never mind. Something my mum says. It means, if you say I'm never wrong, you're setting me up to be wrong."

Sirius' bewildered look wasn't going anywhere. "That makes absolutely no sense."

Remus rolled his eyes. "Just forget it, Sirius. Don't hurt yourself."

James snickered. "Good to have you back, at any rate, Remus. C'mon, then, join us in our attempt to do homework, since I'm wrong too often for Sirius." He turned back to his book, pushing his glasses up. "What was your question, Peter?"

Remus settled down in his own bed and pulled out his Transfiguration homework. As the four boys worked together, with only several interruptions and random anecdotes for their general amusement, Remus nearly forgot about the quickly waxing moon. As the lights went out, though, and he pulled his blankets around him, he thought about tomorrow. His friends would assume his lark in the rain had made him sick. Only he would know that the misery came with every single full moon.

…

Four days later, Remus Lupin was smiling. It was a small smile, but it stayed with him all day. His friends — his three miracle friends — were in high spirits since he had left the hospital wing and rejoined them. They had taken notes for him during class. They'd left him a card in the hospital wing, when he had pretended to be asleep. They joked and caroused, and made him smile again.

For the first time in his memory, Remus Lupin was unreservedly happy. He could be happy here, one month at a time.


	6. Happy Holidays

"Sirius!"

Something loud was jumping up and down on his bed. Sirius turned his head slightly, but it was too much effort to actually open his eyes. He grumbled something incoherent, hoping that that would suffice and he could go back to sleep.

"_Sirius Black!_" A pair of very knobby knees crashed down on his legs. Sirius awoke with a squawk of surprise and pain.

"James!" he shouted, recognizing the bespectacled demon with the sharp knees. "Get off my bed!"

Then Remus tore back his curtains from the other side, sending light spilling over Sirius' face. He winced at the bright white outside, visible through the window. "What is this," he complained, "pick on Sirius day?"

"No, you nitwit!" James exclaimed. "It's Christmas morning! _Get up!_"

"_Ohhhhh._" Sirius pushed James off his bed, suddenly fully awake. "Well why didn't you _say _so?"

"We did," Remus said, rolling his eyes and grinning happily.

"You kind of waved us off," Peter yawned, "but then you just went back to sleep."

"Shall we open presents here or in the common room?" James asked, bouncing with excitement.

"I think the girls who stayed are already in the common room," Remus pointed out.

"Here, then!" Sirius scrambled for the foot of his bed. "Me first!" He seized a parcel and ripped it open. A broad grin split his face. "Excellent," he chuckled, examining the package of Zonko's products James had given him.

"Who's this from?" Peter asked, holding up a smallish gift in red and gold wrapping.

"Oh," James said, coloring slightly. "I, er, think my mum may have taken it upon herself to send you guys presents."

"Really?" Remus reached for his own red-and-gold present a little hesitantly, both curious and confused. Sirius chuckled, already opening his second gift.

"Yeah, well, I wrote Mum and Dad and mentioned you lot, didn't I? Ooh, nice Sirius!" James exclaimed, pulling on his new flying gloves.

That Christmas was the best in Sirius' memory. Peter gave them all large boxes of mixed sweets, including Sirius' favorite Every Flavor Beans. He got one gift from his parents: a thick, heavy book entitled _Nature's Nobility: A Wizard's Genealogy_, which Sirius promptly chucked, though the box of candy from his little brother was more appreciated. Remus had also given him a book, but a much better one about defensive spells and countercurses. James had also received a book on Transfiguration from Remus, while Peter opened a box of Chocolate Frogs — he collected the cards. James had given Remus a Charms book and some chocolate; Sirius had given Remus a small, glittering star globe and some chocolate; and Peter had just given Remus a load of chocolate. It took the sandy-haired boy a while to stop laughing when he realized that everyone he knew had bought him chocolate, but he agreed that they were perfectly right to do so. And James proved to be right again: the Potters had, indeed, sent each of the boys a gift. James opened a new winter cloak from his mother and a pocket sneakoscope from his dad; the Potters had also sent Sirius a fine pair of warm gloves, and Peter a cozy-looking hat. Remus opened a pair of fluffy red-and-gold socks, at which James chuckled.

"I told Mum how you stole my blankets that one time," he admitted, "and apparently she thinks that means you lot get cold."

"Tell her and your father thanks, James," Remus replied, also grinning. "Really… they didn't have to do this…"

"Ah, but they like you guys already," James grinned. "And you're all invited to come over and stay a while during the summer."

"Brave words," Sirius remarked with a grin.

"Really?" Peter asked, pausing in his unwrapping of the huge firecracker set James and Sirius had bought him together.

"Yeah, 'course," James replied airily, poking absently through his box of sweets. "I'm an only child. Mum and Dad love it when we've got other people round the house, they'd think it was great if I had friends come over to stay a while."

Sirius glanced briefly at the discarded book in the corner. Then, ignoring a single stab of guilt, he said, brightly, "You don't know what you're in for, mate, but I'll be there if there's any way I can manage it."

James grinned. "Let's get breakfast," he declared, jumping out of bed. "And I want to see if all is in readiness…"

"Ready for what?" Remus asked, pausing as he pulled on his new fuzzy socks.

James and Sirius shared a glance, then grinned wickedly. "Wait and see, dear Remmy," Sirius snickered. "Wait and see."

He and James raced for the portrait hole, the bespectacled boy beating him by a fraction of an inch, their two dorm-mates hot on their heels. The four boys careened through the castle, lit up with holiday spirit, and Sirius laughed out loud as he thought of how little he was inclined to spend Christmas at Grimmauld Place ever again.

* * *

><p><em>Author's Note: so, almost exactly a month after Yule, let's have a Christmas story! Actually, the off-kilter timing has absolutely nothing to do with it, I was just casting around for something to write and decided that the boy's first Christmas would be nice. I know that they probably didn't all stay every year, but in this story they stay for the first one. To anybody else who did a double-take at Remus getting socks, I happen to absolutely love fuzzy socks, so one Marauder needed to get them. Happened to be Remus this year; maybe I'll make that a tradition between the four of them.<br>__Anyway, so with that, a very belated happy Yule, Christmas, whatever people celebrate in the winter. I think I'm drawing a close on the first year, with one or two more shots. Then we're off to the next years, for which I already have a few longer, more interesting pieces written. I think they're better, anyway. So, sorry for this rambling note, hope you're all enjoying the story. Feel free to review!_


	7. No Need to Say Goodbye

"Well," Remus sighed, "here we are."

Sirius looked glumly out the window of the train. "I don't want to go," he said stubbornly.

James managed a small smile. "I think you've told us that before…"

"Once or twice," Remus added.

"All of the last week," Peter muttered.

A smile tugged at the corner of Sirius' mouth, but it died a quick and painful death when the train stopped, and Sirius caught a glimpse of two tall, proud figures in swirling black robes at the station. He scrunched down in the seat, hiding from the window.

James, Remus, and Peter exchanged glances. None of them stood up to gather their things, either.

"Go on," Sirius waved at them. "I'm just going to sit here until September first. I'm sure the lady with the trolley will feed me. You'll find me here after the summer."

James shook his head. "If you stay on the train how're you going to come visit me? You're all coming over."

Remus twisted the hem of his shirt. "Um… are you sure…?"

James nodded briskly and stood up. "C'mon, lads, our parents should meet, too, 'cause I don't like to be stuck organizing things."

At that, Remus smiled. "Agreed — because I would like to come visit, and before next February would be excellent."

"Rude," James muttered. He held out a hand to Sirius. "Come on, mate. You're a Gryffindor."

Sirius looked up at him, his insides twisting. "That's not a good thing where I'm headed," he said in a low voice.

"Then this is where you prove it," James said fiercely. "Get up, Sirius. We know you're worth a hundred of them. If they try to keep you locked up this summer, we'll come and get you. Dad's head of the Auror office, I'm sure he can get some sort of excuse."

Sirius smiled weakly. "Thanks James, but really, I'd better just avoid them at all costs. Not set the pixies in the cats, you know."

"That's the cat among the pixies," Remus corrected him inevitably. "And, Sirius," he added, peering out the window, "isn't that your younger brother?" He looked down at the grey-eyed boy. "I've never had siblings, but I'd be pretty put out if you refused to come see me after nine months being away."

Sirius sighed heavily. He let his head fall back with a thunk.

"Come on, Sirius," Peter said. "You've got the summer to get your brother to be Sorted into Gryffindor, instead of Slytherin. Not a chance you can miss."

Damn their voices of reason and logic. With an almighty groan, Sirius levered himself to his feet and slowly pulled his trunk down.

"Fine," he muttered. "But if you leave me there all summer, Potter…"

James grinned. "Ooh, the last name. Don't worry, Siri, I won't forget about you."

"How could any of us forget you?" Remus asked dryly. "You've only traumatized us and scarred our young minds for the past nine months."

James and Peter laughed as Sirius stuck his tongue out. Reluctantly, Sirius grinned, too, and allowed his three friends to steer him off of the train. He didn't know what went through his parents' minds when they saw him disembarking with this company: James Potter, who would be acceptable if his family weren't complete blood traitors; Remus Lupin, with his enigmatic smile and shabby robes; and Peter Pettigrew, a small nonentity. That would be the way his parents saw his best friends. And the way they saw Sirius? He wasn't sure yet, but he guessed that they would waste little time in making their opinions known, once the family was once again cloistered in their ancient, respectable, utterly hopeless house.

Sirius put it off as long as he could. He met Peter's mother, and assured her cheerfully that they'd taken good care of her son, and only most of his detentions were James and Sirius' fault — however, she seemed genuinely amused, and told them that Peter had written her so much about them, and she was glad that her son had such good friends, even if they did get into the occasional detention. They would mature in time; this was only first year, after all, and Peter had told her how much his friends had helped him with his schoolwork, too. Sirius and James shared one glance during this little speech, then determinedly avoided each other's gazes.

Then Sirius was introduced to James' parents, too, and he and Remus and Peter thanked them for the Christmas presents they'd sent. The Potters were warm and friendly, very much like their son, and invited the boys again to visit James during the summer. Finally, Remus' parents found them, and smiled in turn at their son's new friends. Mrs. Lupin looked to Sirius to be having one of her healthy spells, for which he was glad for Remus. She seemed very happy that Remus had made good friends, though a strange little worried line stayed etched on her forehead. All of the parents seemed to get along very well, leaving the boys one more moment to talk alone.

"You are all coming," James asked again, "right? I dunno if I can stand a whole summer without anything interesting going on."

"Poor James," Sirius teased, "cooped up in his mansion with no one to play with?"

"We'll come," Remus promised.

"And we all have to write," Peter added, "right?"

"Yeah," Sirius said, checking his pocket to make sure he hadn't lost his scrap of paper with three addresses copied onto it. "And we can meet up in Diagon Alley in August, too, it'll be loads better if I can do my shopping with you lot instead of being dragged along to get all of Reg's new stuff…"

"Remus!" his mother's voice called apologetically. "Remus, we've got to get going."

"See you guys," Remus said with a little wave, before he followed after his parents. He took his father's hand, and the three of them vanished.

"Pete, it's time for us to leave, as well," Mrs. Pettigrew said. The smallest of their friends left as well, with a wave and another call of goodbye, until he was lost in the crowd.

James stuck out his hand. "See you, then."

Sirius nodded, and grasped his best friend's hand tightly. "Owl me if you come up with any good pranks," he ordered with a grin, "and I'll try 'em out on my brother before term starts."

James nodded, grinning, and then Sirius turned away. There was no need, he thought, to say goodbye. It wasn't as if they were really _leaving_. It was only going to be a short break between fantastic years. Then, the four of them would go back to Hogwarts. Sirius would go back home.

His mother gazed at him imperially as he joined his family. "Come along, Sirius," she said in a low voice. "We have a long talk ahead of us."

Sirius followed his family, pulling his red-and-gold tie conspicuously to the front of his robes. He turned once, and saw a mess of untidy black hair jumping above the crowd, waving wildly. Sirius grinned, and waved back, and took a long, long look at Platform Nine and Three-Quarters.

He'd be coming back, not a moment too soon. There was no need to say goodbye.

* * *

><p><em>Author's note: as I was writing this, Regina Spektor's 'The Call' came on my ipod. It seemed very fitting for the last moment of the boy's first year together. Next year promises to be even more interesting, as Quiddtich starts, the stakes go up between James and a certain Slytherin, and the boys try very hard to keep secrets from each other. Thanks so much to all you guys who read through their first year: and, as always, "This is to one last day in the shadows, and to know a brother's love," as said perfectly by Thriving Ivory in 'Angels on the Moon'. <em>

_See you guys next time._

_~ Meridas_


	8. A Rough Start

A high whistle cut through the air, and Peter Pettigrew squirmed out of his mother's embrace. "Mum, I'm gonna miss the train."

"Oh, alright, dear." She smiled fondly, and straightened his robes. He put up with it, bouncing up and down, until she kissed the top of his head and said, "Goodbye, Pete, see you—" and then he was gone.

He paused in the doorway, though, and turned around. "Love you, Mum, bye!" he shouted, waving madly for a moment. She waved back; then Peter whirled around and began his trek down the length of the train, searching for his three friends. He nodded hello to a couple of people, and was just starting to worry that somehow he had missed James, Sirius and Remus, when he heard a familiar bright voice ahead of him.

"Pete! Oi, Peter! Over here!"

A grin broke over Peter's face as a head of untidy black hair bobbed up and down over the heads of taller students. A moment later, another black-haired boy' popped up in front of Peter.

"So how've you been?" Sirius grinned, helping Peter carry his trunk through the crowded train. "We're just in here, we were about to come looking for you—"

"Mum held me up," Peter explained, heaving his trunk up into the rack, next to Remus' faded trunk and James' gleaming one. Then he flopped down into a seat. The four of them had this compartment all to themselves. After last year, no one dared to sit with them. "How were your summers?"

"All right," Remus murmured. He smiled wanly, and Peter wondered if he'd been sick recently. He was looking a little pale and peaky. Peter thought about the pocket change his mother had given him, and resolved to buy some food to share with Remus from the lady with the trolley, when she came along. Chocolate always cheered Remus up.

"Fantastic!" James exclaimed, sitting bolt upright, his eyes gleaming. "D'you guys remember how my parents got me a book for my birthday in March?"

Sirius snickered. "How could we forget?"

"Yeah, so I got home, and Mum brought it up, and we all pretended for like three _days _that I liked it, and I'd actually read it, and it wasn't lying under my bed _at Hogwarts _because I'd completely forgotten it existed — until Dad cracked up one morning at breakfast. I thought for a minute he'd just gone bonkers, but then Mum started laughing, too… and then Dad said he couldn't stand talking about that ruddy book anymore, and they'd planned on giving me my real present when I got home…" James grinned at them, his eyes sparkling behind his glasses.

Sirius, never the patient one, asked first. "So what'd they get you?"

"I liked the book," Remus remarked, his expression bland. Peter glanced at him, and caught the brief spark of mischief in his eyes.

James spared Remus one incredulous look before he turned to Sirius, his face practically glowing. "They got me a new _broom!_ It's fantastic, the newest Silver Arrow, like the—"

"Irish Seeker rides!" Sirius finished, letting out a whoop. "I _knew _it! I knew you'd have that before Malfoy! Ha! Reg owes me ten Galleons."

James gave him a look similar to the one he'd given Remus. "What d'you mean, you knew? How'd you know they'd get me a broom?"

Sirius rolled his eyes. "Because you've always got the best stuff." Peter and Remus both looked away from the two others at that point — Sirius didn't notice, but James picked uncomfortably at his shoelaces.

"Well," he muttered. "Good, because if you'd been in on it and not told me for _months_…"

"Are you going out for the Quidditch team this year, then?" Remus asked, abruptly returning to the conversation.

James perked right back up. "Yeah! Montgomery left at the end of last year, so there's at least one spot open, and now I've got a decent broom — the school ones are rubbish, you know—"

"Maybe you should donate your old one," came a new and unwelcome voice. "If it was acceptable for you, Potter, surely it will make such a fantastic addition to the poor collection that other students must make use of…"

James glared, all traces of his smile instantly gone. "Bugger off, Malfoy. No one wants you here."

"Or maybe," the sixth-year added maliciously, "if you're looking to hand out charity, you could just fob it off to Lupin… who knows, some people's trash is worth more than others' houses…"

James and Sirius shot to their feet, pulling out wands. Remus grabbed James' sleeve, a look of alarm on his pale face. "Leave it," he hissed. "Just leave it."

"Get — out," Sirius snarled.

Lucius Malfoy gave a mocking nod in Sirius' direction. "Listen to your little friend, now… careful. Wouldn't want detention before you even got to school," he said, tracing a finger around his Prefect's badge. "Although," he added, eyes gleaming, "you could do with better friends, young Black; living up to the family name could keep you in many important people's good graces, much more so than associating with the… people you do."

He slid the door closed, smirking, and moved off with his pack of sniggering followers. James stuffed his wand back into his robes and flung himself back into his seat. "You should've let me hex him," he muttered bitterly. Sirius showed all the signs of wanted to begin pacing; before he could fill the compartment with his restless prowling, though, Peter said, "I think this year's first prankees have just volunteered."

James and Sirius looked at him, and simultaneously gave their evil grins. Remus sighed quietly, and Peter was probably the only one who heard the relief in it. "When we find out where the Slytherin common room is," Peter went on, "I think we should hide all Malfoy's pocket gold and replace it with leprechaun gold. It disappears in a couple hours, just turns to dust, you know?"

Sirius chuckled and deigned to resume his seat. "I'll look forward to that, and expend the energy that I will not be using on History of Magic homework toward finding Slimy Headquarters. In the meantime, I heard that there's a _mimbulus mimbletonia _in Greenhouse Six, those have some very entertaining defensive properties when strategically placed…"

Remus hadn't said anything, just sat there staring out the window as the country flashed by. Finally James said, "Remus? You alright?"

"Hm?" Remus jumped a little, and brushed his sandy hair out of his eyes. "Yeah, I'm fine… everything's fine…" he stood, swaying a little with the train's movements. "I'm gonna… I'll be right back…"

He left the compartment, closing the door softly behind him. The three of them looked after him for a moment in concern; then James swore explosively.

Peter jumped at the outburst. "What?"

"Malfoy," James spat. "Bloody _git_." He sighed and slumped back against the wall of the compartment. "I was going to offer Remus my broom," he muttered, pushing his glasses up onto his head and rubbing his eyes. "I'd worked out how I was going to say it, too, so it wouldn't seem like it was some bloody charity, because it _isn't, _because he loves flying and he needs a ruddy broomstick…"

"Give it to him for Christmas," Peter suggested, "or his birthday."

"That's re-gifting," James protested, "that's cheap…"

"I bet it still looks and flies like new," Peter argued. "So _I'll _give it to him, and you can get him something new, that way I won't have to owl Mum for extra Christmas money. Everybody's happy." He stood up. "I'm going to go find Remus. You lot start playing Exploding Snap or something, don't sulk. And if the food trolley comes by, buy some chocolate." With that, he left the compartment; but behind him he heard James said thoughtfully, "He could be right."

"Could be," Sirius agreed. "This is one for the calendar, a new national holiday…"

"Sirius…"

Peter grinned ruefully, shaking his head, and went to find his missing friend.

…

He was used to it, but he still hated it.

Last year Remus had started out really needing James and Sirius to stick up for him when those spoiled, rich, stuck-up heirs sniggered at him. He _knew _his robes, his trunk — alright, everything but his wand — was secondhand. None of them knew — or could ever know — that Remus' father actually had a very good job, but Remus' lycanthropy dragged in a stack of medical bills with each full moon. They could never know, but they wouldn't care. But Remus' friends didn't know, either, but they never seemed to care about the state of his belongings. Not in a bad way, anyway. James would buy Remus everything, new and expensive, if Remus would let him. But becoming a werewolf had sapped Remus of a lot of things, and what little pride he had left was tender. He didn't want James' money, just his friendship. That was enough of a miracle.

But it didn't make it fun when prats like Malfoy brought up his poverty in front of the only people whose good opinions Remus gave a shit for.

He drew in a shuddering breath and stepped out into biting cold air. Somehow Remus had ended up all the way at the back of the train without really noticing it. He'd just kept walking until there was no place left to go. Now he stood with his hands clenched around the railing, watching the countryside go by. Normally, this little area at the back was full of older students smoking, but today was unseasonably cold — so Remus had it all to himself.

Until Peter's voice said behind him, "could you have picked a spot further from our compartment?"

Remus just shrugged, his shoulders hunching slightly. He forced himself to relax.

Peter leaned against the railing next to him. "How come you didn't tell us what's really wrong?" he asked quietly. "You never do. You always just run."

Remus glanced down at him in surprise. "I just— maybe it isn't any of your business," he forced himself to say, shocked by how harsh it came out.

Peter's pale blue eyes met Remus' amber ones. "But we're your friends," he said, as if that made everything simple. And maybe it did. Maybe Remus just didn't have much experience with friends. Maybe he was just a bad friend.

"You are _not_," Peter said fiercely, and Remus jumped, realizing that he'd spoken aloud.

A very sad smile tugged at Remus' lips. "I'm not as good as you all think I am."

Peter looked confused for a moment, and Remus cursed himself — because what he needed to do was make it _more obvious _that he was a werewolf! Then the smaller boy shrugged. "I'm not quite sure that that matters," he said thoughtfully. "Besides, people never think of themselves as they really are. I mean, Sirius thinks he's the coolest thing that ever happened to Hogwarts, after all."

Suddenly Remus laughed. He grinned down at Peter. "True. And I don't think you're as slow as you think you are, Peter. Give yourself a little credit."

The smaller boy beamed at him. "Great. Now we've established that we're both more awesome than Sirius, can we go back? It's bloody _cold _out here, Remus."

Remus nodded, and followed Peter back to their compartment. By the howls and bangs coming from behind the door, Remus assumed that James and Sirius had started a game of Exploding Snap in his absence — but instead he found them playing chess.

He rolled his eyes at them out of habit. "How," he demanded, "do you to manage to make a quiet, intellectual game into a war?"

James grinned at him, his hair sticking up at even odder angles than usual. "All you need is us, clever-clogs, and it's instantly more fun."

Remus rolled his eyes again, but this time he smiled.

* * *

><p><em>Author's note: I realize that Draco Malfoy was Harry's archenemy at school, and that Snape was James', but Snape came from a not-so-great home too, so I figured that of all things, money would be something that Snape wouldn't taunt about, because he's not in a position to throw stones. However, Lucius Malfoy seemed just as bratty and sneering as his son, so I figured I could throw him in here a few times when that's what I needed. Remus always seems very calm and unaffected by what other people think — except for the werewolf thing — but being poor is touchy. I wanted to make a point that Remus' life is already far from perfect, but James, Sirius, and Peter accept him in spite of some things that are a lot smaller than the werewolf issue, but still might really bother a kid. I also just wanted to try something from Peter's point of view; I don't think that he's an idiot, or unkind, or anything that we could assume based on what he becomes later. At school, I imagine him to be kind of like Ron, really. Maybe Neville. Anyway. Hope it made a little sense and that at least you didn't hate it.<em>


	9. Meeting Miss Evans

"Remus," James sighed, "you take school far too seriously." He eyed the teetering stack of library books his sandy-haired friend had collected. "Really, Rem. You're going to throw your back out at the ripe old age of twelve, and you'll have no one to blame but yourself." He shook his head, twirling his wand between his fingers.

"That's what spells are for, James," Remus muttered patiently, searching through the shelves. "And there's only one more I need."

"No, there isn't!" James cried in exasperation, earning himself a _"Quiet in the library!" _attack from the mummy-like librarian. After James had meekly apologized and Remus had convinced Madame Pince that James was helping him, the old crone stalked away, and Remus continued sorting through the books. James began weeding through Remus' stack.

"Leave those alone," Remus protested.

James rolled his eyes. "The last thing you need is yet another Charms book. Are you not happy being at the top of the third year class already? Got to learn the OWL curriculum?" He tossed the book away. "Be a kid, Remus. Get what you really need, then come help us look for the kitchens. What _are _you looking for, anyway?"

"Potions," Remus sighed. "Last week was a _disaster_. I can't afford to fall behind."

"Remus. It's the _second week of school._"

"I know it's here somewhere," Remus muttered, ignoring his friend. James threw up his hands.

"Why don't you study when you visit your mum?" he asked, not unkindly. Remus froze for a moment, the way he always did when _It _came up, and James hurried on, afraid that he'd said something wrong. "I mean, I know you want to visit with her, but, you know, my mum always sleeps a lot when she's ill, so you could read then, and stay caught up without having to stress out every month."

Remus forced himself to relax, to look up and smile at James' anxious face. "I do," he said, another half-lie to add to the pile he was sinking into. One day, they'd drown him. He eyed his leaning tower of books critically, and sighed. "Could you put the Transfiguration books back? I think you and Sirius are good enough to catch me back up in that class." He said it mainly to make James happy — but also because it was true, and his bespectacled friend was right.

"I don't know of any good Potions books," James said as he sorted through Remus' stack again. "Slughorn's mentioned a couple, but I think they're already checked out… honestly, people in this school study too hard… maybe we should raid the Ravenclaw common room for you, Remus. I'll be right back, gonna put these away before the mummy tears my head off." He left with a pile of textbooks, and Remus smiled slightly. James' banter never failed to cheer him up.

"Excuse me," a soft voice said. Remus looked up from the shelf to see a young red-headed student holding a book out to him. He took it, recognizing the title as the one he was looking for. But it didn't have a library number.

"Isn't this your own book?" Remus asked tentatively.

She smiled, her green eyes bright. "Yes. But it's okay, we're in the same House — same year, even. I'm Lily Evans."

"Oh." Of course Remus knew her — he should have recognized her, she was in all of his classes. All his fellow students' names seemed to have left his head over the summer, along with half his school learning. "Thanks. I'm Remus Lupin."

"I remember. You're in my classes."

Remus felt his face get hot. "Um, yeah…" _Including Potions. _He did remember now, this redhead working a few tables over in the dungeon with her slimy— _no_, black-haired partner, their potion simmering a perfect lilac color while his tar-like fiasco slowly ate a hole in James' cauldron.

Lily Evans smiled as if she hadn't been there at all, though: a lovely friendly smile. "You're really good at Defense Against the Dark Arts, you know."

"Thanks." Remus smiled back hesitantly. He wondered what on earth he was supposed to say next — when thankfully, James came back around the corner. "Remus, are you… oh. Hi." He straightened his glasses and held out his hand. "Evans, isn't it?"

The redhead eyed him for a moment before she shook his hand. "Yes. And you're Potter."

"James Potter. You're friends with Alice Prewitt, aren't you?"

"Yes, I am. Do you know her?"

"We're cousins, yeah." James pushed his glasses up again, then ran his hand through his hair. "Well… nice to finally meet you, Evans. Lily Evans, right?"

"Yes," Lily said in a voice making it clear that he could address her by her last name only. "And we already met, unofficially. On several occasions."

James glanced at Remus, unprepared for the sudden cool turn of the conversation. Remus coughed slightly. "Um, James… Li—Evans here is friends with Snape."

James' eyebrows went up. "Ohhh, right. Right, then. Remus, d'you need help with those, 'cause I need to get—yeah. See you later. Bye Evans." He zipped out of the library, his passing marked only by the hissing of an angry goose — or an angry mummy librarian.

Remus smiled awkwardly at Lily. "Um, thanks again for the book."

Lily blinked, and gave him a slightly more distracted smile than before. "Not a problem. I've read it before. If you need more help, maybe we could study together? I could use some tips on Transfiguration."

"Sure… though, James is better than I am…"

"See you around, then, Remus!" Lily Evans waved as she walked away, deeper into the library.

Remus was suddenly alone with his stack of books. The library's peaceful quiet abruptly got on his nerves. With a small sigh, Remus flicked his wand at the books and began the long walk back to Gryffindor Tower. Lily Evans was nice and all, but for a while Remus wanted to dump the books on his bed and laugh with his best friends. It was going to be a rough year, but he was resolved to make the best of it.

* * *

><p><em>Author's note: just out of curiosity, does anyone read these? Anyway, finally an appearance by Miss Evans. This year will see more rivalry, though I don't think James will start asking her out just yet... maybe next year.<br>Thanks to IceBlueCrystal for leaving a review! Made my day. See you next time!_


	10. Coffee and Quidditch

_Quick note: if you got the memo that I updated, and you're looking at this thinking "I read this yesterday", go back one chapter to Meeting Miss Evans. Little mix up on the order of the moments. Thanks! Happy reading!_

* * *

><p><em>Bang!<em>

"James!"

"Sorry!"

Remus sighed gustily. "If you were sorry, this wouldn't be the third time in an hour."

James straightened his glasses and grinned up at Remus. "You like rearranging your books, don't you?" he said cheekily, before leaping to his feet again. Remus flicked his wand and repaired his bookshelf — _again _— and glared at Peter.

"I blame you," he muttered darkly.

"What'd I do?" the blond boy squeaked.

Remus shook his head in disgust. "I have a new dorm rule to propose," he announced to anyone who would listen. "James Potter is not allowed coffee."

"Aw, that's not fair," James whined. "I liked it."

"Not on weekends," Remus insisted. "You're _way _too hyper to be stuck in the dorm. Why don't we go outside?"

"How about down to the Quidditch pitch?" Sirius suggested.

"Quidditch!"

Remus sighed as he picked up his scattered books. "Now you've done it…"

"What do you say, Sirius?" James bounced around their dormitory. "Gonna try out for the team?"

"I think I will," Sirius yawned. Opposite of James, he lay bonelessly on his bed, looking as if he'd never move again. He grinned lazily. "Be fun to play a friendly match against the family again."

"You've played before?" Peter asked enviously. "Mum would never let me fly."

Remus smiled to himself, thinking that Mrs. Pettigrew was a very intelligent woman.

"Yeah, we'd always play when the cousins got together," Sirius yawned again. "Fly around and try to knock each other off the brooms, mostly, I seem to recall good old Bella trying to teach us that we got points for hitting each other in the head with the Quaffle, not putting it through the hoops…"

"Sounds like, er, fun. You're a good flyer, anyway." James bounced a little too exuberantly up onto Sirius' bed, and promptly hurtled off the other side. Remus rolled his eyes at his two friends; James seemed to have stolen all of Sirius' energy, leaving the grey-eyed boy too slothful to do anything but snicker at their over-enthusiastic — or overly caffeinated — friend.

"What'll you try out for?" Remus asked them curiously.

James' untidy head reappeared, glasses askew. "Not coming with us, Remmy?"

"Not if you insist on calling me that," Remus threatened idly, now putting his books back in order on his shelves. "I'll come to watch, I suppose. But I don't think I'll play." He smiled wanly. "Mum doesn't want me to, says I'm 'delicate'." _That, and I think I'd miss too many practices per month…_

"I might try for Beater," Sirius drawled. "I'm usually good at that… just pretend the Bludgers are my dear mum's head, you know…"

"I want to be Chaser," James mused, placing his hands on the floor and kicking his legs into the air. "I wouldn't mind — rmph — Seeker, they get all the real glory…" on his third try, James managed to get up on his hands, balancing precariously and grinning upside-down at Remus. "Or Keeper," he went on, now walking unsteadily on his hands around the dormitory. "But those two are kind of boring sometimes, you have to wait for the Snitch or the other Chasers to get — bugger!" His glasses had slipped off his face and cracked against the stone floor. Sirius and Peter roared with laughter — even Remus was laughing helplessly as James put his feet back on the floor and stood up. The scowl he aimed at his friends was ruined not only by his having to squint to see them, but also that he, too, was trying to smother his laughter. Finally he gave up and jumped back on Sirius' bed, snickering uncontrollably. Sirius, reluctant to move, was landed on, and his protests made the other three laugh even harder.

"Didn't see you there!" James said gleefully, capitalizing on his lack of glasses.

Remus finally composed himself, repaired James' glasses with a tap of his wand, and handed them to his hyperactive friend. "Here," he grinned. "You'll need these if you want to see the Quaffle before it hits you in the face."

* * *

><p><em>Author's note: if anyone thinks that James' hyperactivity is over the top, I actually based this on a real-life friend who does this pretty regularly. If it makes it more rational, assume that James had his first experience with coffee that morning.<em>

_Thanks for reading! Review!_


	11. Rivals

Sirius yawned enormously. He pushed his empty breakfast plate away and laid his head down in its place. "What do we have first?" he muttered.

"Herbology," he heard Remus' voice answer. He groaned unenthusiastically.

"Mail's here," Peter's voice reported. Sirius made an even less enthusiastic noise and pushed himself upright in time to see his family's screech owl land in front of Regulus at the Slytherin table. His friends looked at him sympathetically, but he rolled his eyes.

"Guys," he said, "I'm not cut up about not getting mail from the harpy. Stop looking at me like I'm suffering a withdrawal of parental affection, because I've never had any in the first place."

"That's sad," Peter said frankly.

Sirius sighed. "Pass the bacon."

"Sirius—"

"Give me the damn bacon, James." He had decided no to care. It was better that way.

The rest of breakfast was uneventful, if you didn't count a distraught Hufflepuff emptying her cereal over her now-ex-boyfriend's head. The four boys were leaving the Great Hall when James suddenly went sprawling. Since Sirius hadn't been shoving him, he whirled around with his wand out — sure enough, just in time to duck a second jinx.

"_Expelliarmus!_" he shouted, directing his wand at a greasy-haired Slytherin. Snape blocked Sirius' spell, but it left him open for James'. His wand flew out of his hand and clattered across the stone floor.

"Alright, mate?" Sirius asked as James appeared at his shoulder.

"Better now," James muttered with a scowl at Snape. His glasses were cracked, but he held his wand steady.

Snape pounced on his wand and flung another curse at them. James' hex sent it ricocheting into the wall.

"How brave of you," Snape jeered, "two against one."

"You're one to talk," Sirius retorted. "Ambushing when someone's back is turned? Very Slytherin indeed."

"You started this, Snivellus," James added. "If you wanted fair odds, you should've thought for a moment."

Sirius noticed that a small crowd had gathered around them — and also that McGonagall's tall hat was moving purposefully toward them. He nudged James.

"I don't reckon he's worth a detention already," he muttered. James hesitated, glaring at Snape; then he stuck his wand back in his pocket.

"Yeah, okay. Let's go."

As Sirius turned, out of the corner of his eye he saw Snape's wand rise again. Sirius shoved James away and felt a searing heat flash by his ear — then he heard Remus cry out, and spun back to Snivellus with his wand out, shouting the Jelly-Legs jinx just as James yelled "_Impedimenta!_" Snape was hurled backward by an invisible force, and unable to stand up again: his legs would not support him. Sirius Disarmed him again, just in case, causing him to swear loudly just as McGonagall shoved her way through the throng of students.

"_What is the meaning of this?_" she shouted, livid. "Students dueling in the halls! Potter! Black! I thought I made it clear that I expect better of Gryffindor House! _Explain yourselves!_"

"He started it," Sirius snarled, knowing that it sounded petulant, but glaring at Snape. He was relieved when students from the crowd murmured that he was right, that Snape had begun the duel with the trip jinx on James.

McGonagall waved her wand at Snape, allowing him to regain his feet, and then at James, repairing his glasses. She peered closely at Remus. "I'm okay," the sandy-haired boy said weakly, wincing. His eyes appeared bloodshot, and McGonagall assigned Peter to take him to the hospital wing. Then she rounded on Snape, James and Sirius again.

"Twenty points from Gryffindor," she barked, "and twenty points from Slytherin. Detention for each of you this Friday evening. If I see any more of this activity, it will be a week's worth." She gave them each her most threatening stare, the one most sane people quailed under. These three boys were too busy glaring daggers at each other. "Have I made myself perfectly clear?"

"Yes, Professor," they mumbled.

"Then get to class. Potter, I trust you will not jeopardize your place on the Gryffindor Quidditch team for any more foolish antics."

A look of real guilt and apprehension flashed across James' face. "No, Professor," he sighed. "I won't." He waited until she was well out of earshot before he muttered, "let you see."

Sirius made sure to whack Snape with his bag as they passed. "Slimy git," he muttered fiercely. "C'mon, we've got to catch the lesson, Remus'll kill us if he misses everything."

James sighed. "Now that, I actually do feel bad about." He glanced back the way Snape had gone with narrowed eyes. "I really," he said in a low voice, "really, _really _don't like him, and that's still an understatement."

"I'm with you there, mate," Sirius muttered.

James kicked at the grass as they walked toward the greenhouses, muttering under his breath. "…fuss and… detention again, over something that small… and Remus, I'll get him for Remus… stupid git…" he kicked a stone and watched it skitter down the path. "Little freak up to his greasy nose in the Dark Arts," he said fiercely. "Do you notice the people he hangs out with? Besides Evans, they're all…"

"My cousins," Sirius noted. "Yeah, I know what you mean. Malfoy and Avery and that lot… nothing good can come of that."

They had reached their class, only a few minutes late. James dropped his bag to the floor and kicked it moodily under their table. "I'll tell you what, though," he vowed in a low voice, "I am not _taking_ anything like that again. Not lying down, and not from bloody _Snivellus._"

* * *

><p><em>And thus the rivalry begins. Thanks to everybody reading: hey, if you drop a review and mention a moment you'd like to see, I'll take a crack at it. <em>


	12. Detention and Concern

"Proof!" Sirius yelped as McGonagall seized him by the ear. "Show me the proof!"

"After as many years of teaching as I have had, Mr. Black, one develops certain powers of deductive reasoning. Stay right where you are, Mr. Potter, I have every confidence that you are not innocent."

James did nothing to deny it as he froze in his tracks. The stare of a basilisk had nothing on an angry Minerva McGonagall. And really, Sirius was just being dramatic. Their robes were soaking wet — they'd left a trail of footsteps in their wake as they searched feverishly for Remus and his charm-work to dry them out. Unfortunately, their Head of House caught up with them first.

McGonagall looked ready to breathe enough fire to dry the two troublemakers out, and then some. "What," she asked icily, "possessed you to not only go into the _girl's _lavatory—"

"It's not like there were any living girls in their with their robes up!" Sirius protested. James winced in sympathy as McGonagall tightened her grip on the miscreant's ear.

"_And then_," she continued ruthlessly, "deliberately antagonize the poor girl _in _the bathroom to the extent that she proceeded to flood the plumbing all the way into the dungeons _and _the Slytherin common room? Explain yourselves!"

James wisely said nothing about how they hadn't antagonized Myrtle at all — she liked James and Sirius, in fact. She had been in on this particular prank: the flooding of the Slytherin common room being, after all, the objective. The boys had met Myrtle last year; James and Sirius had been running from Filch, and taken refuge in that particular out-of-order bathroom. Myrtle enjoyed their visits, and they often used her bathroom for the somewhat-illicit activities that their dorm would possibly not survive. Everyone was used to odd noises coming from Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, anyhow.

"I believe the word you're looking for is 'overreaction', Professor," he said instead, solemnly. Professor McGonagall's eyes snapped and James hurriedly went on. "Well, obviously it was a mistake that we went into the girls' bathroom, and then we realized what it was, and Moaning Myrtle must have gotten all offended that we didn't seem to care about her death story, she's very dramatic, you know…"

McGonagall stared at him as if she wasn't sure whether to laugh or dock him a million points. Finally she compromised with "You will both receive detention tonight, though I'm not sure why I still bother. I suppose I hold onto the idealistic hope that enough hours of drudgery will hammer some modicum of repentance into your minds. You will report to Madame Pince in the library at eight o'clock, I'm sure she will have quite a few books for you to sort and shelve." She finally turned Sirius' ear loose. "I will be most displeased if we have this conversation again, Potter, Black."

"As always, Professor," James said cheekily, before he and Sirius darted away, ducking into the secret passageway they'd been aiming for five minutes ago before she could call them back and take points. They pelted along the small corridor, snickering hysterically, until they reached the Gryffindor common room.

Remus looked up in mild surpise when the two disheveled, sopping mischief-makers collapsed with him in front of the fire. "Dare I ask?"

"'Course you dare, you're a Gryffindor," Sirius declared, clapping Remus on the shoulder. Remus winced slightly and edged away, dragging an almost-complete essay. "You're both wet."

James ignored the obvious statement and sighed with relief. "Nice to get these chairs," he remarked.

"I believe that the rest of the House is still too wary to sit in them if even one of us is present in the common room," Remus pointed out with an amused twitch of his lips.

"Oh, right." James grinned reminiscently. Funnily enough, their finest prank of last year had been on their own House: tired of being kicked out of the good armchairs, the four best friends had set up a clever long-term tickling charm which attacked anyone who tried to sit in the preferred armchairs. Harmless and simple, but endlessly entertaining and highly effective "There are lots of chairs," Sirius had pointed out at the time, reveling in his favorite wide, squashy seat. "If someone else wants to claim dibs, they should just be cleverer than we are. I'd cede rights — until we came up with something better, anyway."

"So," Remus asked, idly flicking through his History of Magic textbook in search of a quote for his essay. "How did it go, and what's the verdict?"

"Absolutely smashing, Myrtle was brilliant, and we have one detention," Sirius reported.

Remus looked up again in astonishment. "One? That's all?"

James nodded proudly. "I think McGonagall dearest was actually impressed by our resourcefulness. And after all, technically, it wasn't us. We just got ratted on for being in her bathroom in the first place." He sighed. "If the world were free of tale-tellers…"

"I'm not one to say I told you so," Remus began, "but I did suggest the Invisibility Cloak."

Sirius shot him an irritated look. "Very well, next time we shall heed the infinite wisdom that you spout for our betterment. Happy?"

"Ecstatic," Remus murmured.

"Great. Now, what's the charm for drying out our robes?"

…

Thud.

"Ouch!"

"Quiet in the library!"

Sirius glared accusingly at his best friend, rubbing the back of his head. James sorted through the bin of books like some sort of library angel, looking for all the world to be innocent of any crime such as might involve a light hardback and Sirius' skull.

"This is not Quidditch practice, you'll find, Mr. Chaser," Sirius hissed pointedly.

James' returning grin was brief and bright. "I was expecting you to hit it back, Mr. Beater."

"Reserve Beater, and it would help if I had any knowledge of its existence before it came into abrupt contact with my head."

"Stop your whinging, we're nearly done now," James said encouragingly. He rose to his feet and stretched massively, trying to shake away nearly three hours in the quiet, dusty shelves. He picked up a stack of books and trudged toward their destination. Sirius stifled a groan and began to sort through yet another stack of his own. This could be the last one, thank Merlin. Serving time in the library was one of his least favorite detentions— though at least it was clean. There were a few mildewy books, but that was far and away better than scrubbing bedpans or sorting through dead flobberworms for Potions classes. It was the monotony that really got to Sirius, but luckily James was there to take most of that away — as much as anyone could when overseen by a mummy who put slave drivers to shame.

"Sirius," James said abruptly, "what d'you think is wrong with Remus?"

Sirius paused in putting away the books, and stretched his arms. "I dunno." He glanced at his fellow troublemaker. "But I thought we agreed last year it wasn't our business? I mean, it's obvious he lies, but he has to have a good reason."

"I know," James agreed. Sirius noticed that he hadn't moved from his position kneeling on the floor, the same book in his hands for the past few minutes.

"What is that?" Sirius asked slowly.

"He was gone on Sunday," James muttered, "and the twenty-sixth, when we had the Great Weasel Disaster in Transfiguration… am I right?"

"Yeah, so?"

James turned around and showed Sirius the book. It was open to a lunar chart of that year. Sirius threw James a skeptical look, then leaned forward to examine the charts. The two dates James had specified were both full moons.

Sirius frowned. "Um… I repeat: so?"

James sighed and shoved the book into its place on a shelf. "I don't know yet, Sirius, but don't you think that… I mean…"

Sirius pulled him up and around. "James Potter, tell me what you're thinking."

James' miserable hazel eyes met Sirius' confused grey ones. "I think he's in trouble, Sirius," he said very quietly, "and I think we need to help." He turned his arm gently out of Sirius' grasp. "C'mon, let's get this done with."

They were almost finished with their detention, stacking books in the Defense section, when Sirius dropped a book in shock. James glanced up hi alarm, but the evil librarian did not appear. Ordinarily Sirius would have seized the opportunity to make a very disturbing and inappropriate joke, but his mind was already reeling.

He picked up the book on Dark creatures. Silently he showed James the front cover: a gruesome sketch of a man turning into a wolf under the full moon. James' face looked pale in the dim light as he nodded. Sirius glanced around for the evil incarnate again before he stuffed the book deep into his school bag.

James tossed him another book, a fierce expression on his face. "Whatever we find," he hissed, "he's still Remus."

Sirius swallowed, and then nodded firmly. His parents would tell him how dangerous and sub-human his half-blood friend already was. Sirius would object, because Remus was one of the best people he knew. Then his mother's ringed hand would smack across his face.

Sirius inhaled deeply, concentrating on the smell of musty books and the lingering damp whiff of bathroom water clinging to himself and James. He shook his head to clear it of the dark, dank halls and rooms of Grimmauld Place. "Yeah," he murmured. "He's still Remus. And I hope for all our sakes we're wrong."

* * *

><p><em>Author's note: yes indeed, to yesterday's one and only reviewer, ., The Talk is fast approaching (I hope I'm not the only child who giggles at the thought of calling it that.) It was going to be later, but I decided to move it up — because, as you pointed out, it took them a while to become Animagi. So I figure they should have as much time as possible — plus, that was in fact the first moment I wrote for this collection. I'll have to change it a little to fit, but I like the way it turned out. So then, til tomorrow!<em>

_Also, if anybody has any pranks/jokes/scenes they would like to see, let me know and I'll work it in. It's nice to get fresh ideas._


	13. Secrets

James shook his head wearily. "God damn," he whispered bleakly.

Sirius threw his Astronomy book across the dormitory, narrowly missing Peter's head. "I don't believe it."

"So you've figured it out?" Peter asked, peeking cautiously out over his bed again.

Sirius stood, beginning to pace. "Yeah, Peter, we have. And you're not going to like it."

James rubbed his hands over his face. "Remus is… well, it looks like he's… a werewolf."

Peter stared at them for a moment. "Um… ha, ha? Is this a joke? Are you three pulling a prank on me?"

James raked his hands through his hair. "No, Peter, we're not! How is this… I don't believe it…"

"_Why _d'you think he's a _werewolf_?" Peter gasped.

Sirius jabbed his finger towards the cast-away Astronomy book. "We checked it against the lunar charts — he's always gone on the full moon. _Every _time he's gone, it's the full moon."

"And you've seen his scars," James murmured, "and the way he comes back all bruised… it's all in there," he added, gesturing toward another discarded book on his bed. He stood up as well, unable to sit still. "They're violent by nature—" he stopped, and laughed. "I can't believe it," he said helplessly. "I honestly can't believe it. Remus Lupin, a werewolf?"

"But he's never hurt anybody!" Peter protested.

"I know," Sirius said impatiently. "Which is probably the only reason he's allowed to come to school, can you imagine if parents found out? They'd go mental! The Ministry has almost passed a couple of laws that would let people _hunt _werewolves. They're classified as dangerous creatures."

"Well, yes, but… Remus?"

"What're we going to do?" James asked, staring at his two friends. Sirius stopped pacing and stared back. Peter glanced uneasily between the two of them.

"Well," he said hesitantly, "I know that… well… werewolves aren't supposed to be safe… but—"

"Of course not," James interrupted, sweeping his hands through his hair again. "How thick are you, Peter?" He stared at Sirius. "But we said, we promised we wouldn't just…"

Sirius bit his lip. "Remus has never hurt anybody," he mumbled. "And clearly he leaves so that he doesn't. But, well… how long till someone makes a mistake?" he blurted. "Then what? We're in a dormitory with a werewolf!"

"I dunno," James muttered. He covered his face with his hands. "I wish we'd left it alone."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah, I do! What're we gonna do, Sirius? Like you said, one mistake and—! But honestly… Remus Lupin, a werewolf?"

"James…" Sirius said quietly.

"Why d'you think it's taken us this long to work it out, Sirius? Because we didn't want to know! Because then we'd have to do something—"

"James!" Sirius barked.

He was staring past James' shoulder now. James turned around, and his heart dropped at the sight of the fourth member of their dorm, standing in the doorway clutching his books as if they were a lifeline. Remus' eyes were huge, his face paper-white.

There was a long silence between the four of them. Then Peter spoke up, his voice trembling. "Remus… are you really a werewolf?"

The boy drew in a shaking breath. "I—I'll pack tonight. I'll b-be gone…" James felt like he was missing something. Then it clicked. Remus was _scared _of them — of _them_. Of people who knew his secret. Had people hurt him, when they'd found out? Hurt him or left him, and to Remus that could be the same thing. James felt a sudden rush of anger, but it wasn't toward the werewolf he'd been sharing a dorm with.

Remus dropped his books, and started to pick them up, but his hands were shaking too badly. He gasped, and mumbled, "Please, just forget that I even—" he couldn't finish, but whirled away, heading back down the stairs.

"Remus!" James sprang after him before he thought. At the bottom of the stairs he caught up and seized the back of the other boy's robes to stop him. "Remus, stop, just come and talk to us, it doesn't matter if you—"

Sirius' hand clamped over James' mouth. "Shut up!" he hissed, and dragged James back up to their dormitory. James refused to let go of Remus' robes, so all three boys ascended the stairs rather awkwardly joined. James thought for a moment that it must have been quite an odd moment for the people in the common room — but then again, not much of what those boys did made sense to other people.

Inside the dormitory, Sirius shut the door and locked it with a muttered spell. James dragged Remus to the center of the room and plunked him down on the floor.

"Emergency secret meeting," he announced. "C'mere, you two."

Sirius and Peter settled on the floor as well, and all three of them looked at Remus. The sandy-haired boy gazed at the floor, his shoulders hunched and stiff. "I'm sorry," he muttered. "I'm sorry."

James stared at him. He'd never seen a person looking less dangerous and vicious. He _knew _Remus, and he wasn't any of those things that werewolves were supposed to be. Mentally he flipped through a checklist of all the things he'd heard about werewolves: and one by one he dismissed them.

"Why didn't you tell us?" he blurted out.

Remus looked up at him in shock. "You — because I… you were my friends. You were the only friends I'd ever had, for such a long time, and I… I didn't want you to leave me."

"I know I'm not the brightest," Peter said, frowning, "but that sounded like past tense, Remus. What d'you mean, that we're not friends anymore?"

Remus stared at Peter now in confusion, still trembling uncontrollably, as if the room were freezing cold. "I—well… yes. I just… I have to leave…" He closed his eyes, but the tears came before he could stop them. He wiped them quickly away, but Remus was _crying_. James had only seen him cry once before, and that had not turned out to be a good day: that had been the day when they — and the Slytherins who'd started it — had found that nothing flared up James' protective side more than seeing Remus cry.

And now _he'd _made him cry. James felt a little sick, and suddenly determined.

"Why?" he snapped. "Why would you have to leave?"

Remus was shaking his head. "You don't want me here," he muttered. "I can't go to school like a normal person, I can't be around people, I might hurt you… and you… you don't want me here, now that you know, you don't want me—"

"Hey," Sirius spoke up, sounding indignant. "I pride myself in being unpredictable, you know. I've worked hard at that, so who are you to assume you know what I want?"

"But I'm… I am a werewolf." He winced as though the words caused him physical pain. "You know… you have to know about… my kind."

"What, the nerds?" James teased. "You carry around too many books and take way too many notes and actually make us study? Terrifying."

Remus looked at him as if he were mad. "James, we're despicable. We're a plague. We shouldn't be alive. We're not—"

James leaned over and clamped his hand over Remus' mouth. "If I ever hear you talk about yourself like that again," he said fiercely, "I'll hex your ears off. Or something equally clever. Don't even think about it." Remus jerked free, ready to protest again.

"Remus, shut up! And listen to us for a second!" Sirius ordered. "You say all this stuff like it's fact. Like we should know it, right? Well, I have heard all that crap before. D'you know where? From my family. Oh, yeah, get them started and they'll run off at the mouth for hours about how werewolves should be exterminated — _just like _anything else that isn't pure-blood! It's all rubbish, Remus! And if you think we're going to let you scarper off," he snorted, "think again. You have a crucial part in the third-floor prank next week, and you're going to see it though."

"Since when has Sirius ever listened to his family, anyway?" Peter added.

Sirius snorted. "When I was stupid."

"So, since minutes ago?" Remus almost smiled.

James laughed out loud. "You set yourself up for that one, mate," he said gleefully to Sirius.

Remus looked at each of them in turn. "Are… do you guys really want me to stay?" he asked weakly. "Are you serious?"

"No, they're not Sirius, I am."

All three of them groaned, and Peter grabbed the nearest pillow to whack Sirius with. James then confiscated the pillow to have his own go, and Sirius ran to the nearest bed to defend himself. Soon enough, the four boys were in the middle of a full-out linen war, complete with a bed-sheet cape, a blanket fort, and feathers flying everywhere.

Finally they collapsed in a heap on James' bed, panting. "Truce," Peter gasped.

"Agreed," James groaned. "What was the war about again?"

"Sirius' idiotic joke," Remus reminded him.

"Oh, yeah. Truce accepted, as long as you never use that sorry excuse for a joke again, Sirius."

"Not accepted!"

"Oh yeah?" James raised a pillow threateningly.

Sirius eyed him and his weapon. "Not for the next week, I swear on my Gryffindor honor. Good enough?"

"Only because I'm tired," James agreed, flopping back down.

"You guys really want me to stay?" Remus whispered.

James rolled over to look at him. His eyes were closed, but the pillow war had flushed his pale face with color again. "Yes," James said decisively. "Yes, Remus, we want you to stay — always. You're one of us, got it? We all ended up in Gryffindor together partly because of loyalty. If we can't stand by you because of something you can't control, we might as well be Slytherins."

"Never!" Sirius cried. "Listen, when we said we had to do something…" James felt Remus tense beside him, and poked him in the ribs. Sirius ignored their antics. "We have to keep your secret." He rolled over to look at Remus. "We solemnly swear that we will never let anyone know, unless you give us permission. Your secret's safe with us."

"And Remus," Peter added, sitting up on one elbow. "Please, tell us… if there's anything we can do. Let us help."

Remus shook his head. "You can't help me," he said gently. "But thank you, all of you, for the offer… for everything…" he laid his arm over his eyes, and the other three pretended with abnormal tact they didn't know he was crying. "Thank you so much."

"Hey, don't mention it," James said breezily. "As long as I can keep copying your History of Magic notes. How _do _you stay awake in that class?"

"Super secret werewolf powers!" Sirius suggested.

As the four of them fell into their familiar banter, though, a thought stayed with James. _You can't help me, _Remus had said.

_Ha, _James thought to himself. _Just watch me._

* * *

><p><em>Author's note: Lucky chapter thirteen, huh? So, I hope it met with expectations. I wanted the boys to have to overcome a little prejudice, because they all grew up in the Wizarding world — like Ron Weasley, whose first words upon finding out about Remus were "get away from me, werewolf," despite the fact that he'd trusted and liked having Lupin as a professor all year. Anyway. Hope you liked it, feel free to drop a note too, especially if you have a moment in mind you'd like to see pop up sometime. Doesn't have to be in second year, I'm already amassing a portfolio of random moments which demand to be written before their time… So long, fare well, til next time! (yeah, no singing here.)<em>

_PS: thank you, thank you, thank you, to Leaving at Midnight, GoMaraudersandLily, and Sapphire Leo (did you used to be IceBlueCrystal, or am I going crazy?) for leaving reviews! Glad I'm not alone in my sense of humor - and yes, there are pranks coming up. Got to lighten the mood, you know? Thanks, you guys are awesome!_


	14. First Match

Remus hurried down to the Great Hall. New bruises throbbed with every step, but he refused to slow down. Breakfast was almost over, and if he missed Sirius and Peter, he'd have to go down to the pitch alone. Madame Pomfrey had put up a huge fuss earlier that morning, wanting to keep him for another afternoon since he didn't have classes, but Remus absolutely refused to miss James' first game because of a stupid full moon.

"Remus! Rem, c'mon, let's go!"

The young werewolf ran after his friend, beginning to grin. "I made Peter go ahead and get us seats," Sirius explained, shoving a stack of toast at Remus. "C'mon, don't want to miss the start."

The excitement of the first game of the year was catching. Remus pulled his red beanie down over his ears as he and Sirius edged through the stands to join Peter. He took the seat Peter had saved for him and forgot almost all about the full moon the night before last. "Too bad you're not playing, too," he said to Sirius.

The grey-eyed boy shrugged carelessly. "Nah, Fletchly and Vance are really good. But hey, Vance is leaving at the end of this year, so there'll be a spot—"

Any other words were drowned in the sudden burst of the commentator's voice. "Welcome to the first match of the year, Gryffindor versus Ravenclaw!" followed by a roar from the crowd.

Ladies and gentlemen, introducing the Gryffindor team! Captained by Seekera Emma Johnson, who seems to have kept on several old hands — can't blame her for keeping Beaters George Fletchly and Gregory Vance, been on the team now for years, along with Chasers Andrea Weasley and Jeremy Wood. However, there have been a few new additions: Keeper McKenzie Finnegan was a reserve last year, and now she's stepping up along with Chaser James Potter — only a second year, he could be considered a bit of a gamble on Captain Johnson's part, but we'll see today how he shapes up."

"Go, James!" Remus shouted along with Sirius and Peter. The team circled the stadium, and James grinned down at this friends, throwing him a salute as his glasses winked in the sunlight.

Someone behind Remus knocked into him, catching a huge bruise on his back. He stumbled into the railing in front of their seats and clutched it, sucking in a breath and determined not to make a scene. He heard a sharp reprimand from Sirius, and an unfamiliar voice apologizing. Before the grey-eyed hothead could take things too far, Remus turned around and sat back down. "It's fine, Sirius," he said, tugging on his friend's sleeve. "Sirius, sit down, you're going to miss the start."

The Captains were shaking hands. Sirius finally sat down again, with a glance at Remus. The young werewolf shook his head slightly. "I'm fine."

A shrill whistle blew. "And they're off!" yelled the commentator. "Weasley grabs the Quaffle right off, it's Gryffindor in possession, Weasley zooming down the field with—ooh, nice Bludger from the Ravenclaw Beater, the Quaffle's dropped—"

"Get it, James!" Remus yelled as his friend dove after the bright red ball, closely followed by another Chaser in blue. James snagged the ball and darted up again in an instant, soaring back toward the Ravenclaw goals.

"Nice save there by the Gryffindor Chaser Potter, passes to Wood, and here comes the Ravenclaw Keeper — it's back to Potter and Gryffindor scores!"

Remus cheered madly, though not quite as much as Sirius, who had abandoned his seat and was jumping up and down.

"First points of the Quidditch season goes to rookie James Potter, that makes it ten-nil to Gryffindor!"

Remus had never enjoyed sports before, but the high of the Quidditch pitch was impossible to resist. He'd missed most of last year's games, mostly because he hadn't been obliged to go — but now he almost regretted it. As the game went on he even started to remember some of the other Gryffindor player's names; he found that he enjoyed cheering for the team, though he couldn't keep track of the score once the game really got underway and more and more goals were made, but Peter always knew what the numbers were. James was making a name for himself already, scoring three of Gryffindor's six goals and intercepting a pass from the Ravenclaw Chasers. The new Keeper, too, was proving herself competent as she blocked all but two of Ravenclaw's shots.

"It's Ravenclaw in possession now, Captain Jeremy Laine taking it up the field, passes to Maria Adrian, Adrian dives around Wood, oh! And she's hit with a Bludger, sent her way by Gryffindor Beater Fletchly, drops the Quaffle and that's Gryffindor back in possession, and — was that the Snitch?"

"Where?" Peter shouted, looking around wildly.

"Look!" Sirius yelled, pointing at Emma Johnson. She had been circling the field like a hawk, but suddenly she had thrown herself low on her broom, shooting down the pitch toward the Gryffindor goals.

"Johnson's seen the Snitch, she's miles ahead of Ravenclaw Seeker Terence Hill—"

"Go Emma!" the Gryffindors were shouting.

"She's nearly there, can she — Ooh, that had to hurt!" The Gryffindors groaned as Emma's broom swerved madly from a tremendous collision with a Bludger hit her way by the Ravenclaw Beater. Remus winced in sympathy as she clutched her broom, gasping for air. However, she waved off McKenzie Finnegan and soon swooped back into the game.

"And Emma Johnson seems to be fine, no trouble there, the Snitch is gone but everyone's still on their brooms, and it's still sixty-twenty to Gryffindor, they're back in possession as Weasley takes the Quaffle up the pitch. Laine heads for her, she passes it off to Wood, it's intercepted! by Ravenclaw Chaser Adrian, she's taking — no, hit by a Bludger and drops the Quaffle, caught by Potter, who takes it up the field, ducks Laine, Potter going for the goal — OUCH!"

"THAT WAS DELIBERATE!" Sirius roared, along with half of Gryffindor House. James' hands clenched his broom handle as his legs kicked at thin air. Remus clutched the railing, desperate for James to hang on to his broom, nervously eyeing the drop below him — easily fifty feet, more like sixty — as the referee's whistle screeched and the offending Ravenclaw Chaser was penalized. Remus breathed again as James swung back onto his broom, shaking his head a little as if to clear it. Andrea Weasley flew over to check that he was alright — when he nodded, she tossed him the Quaffle.

"And Potter will take the penalty, not the decision most would expect, but we'll see… and he's got it! Potter beats the Keeper for another ten points, making it seventy-twenty to Gryffindor—"

"Look at Emma!" Sirius hissed suddenly, as the Gryffindor Seeker shot forward, and looped around the Ravenclaw Captain, who dropped the Quaffle in shock as she rose into the air, her fist raised triumphantly.

"She's got it!" Sirius cried, "she caught the Snitch! We won!" He leapt up and down like a little kid. Remus was torn cheering madly for one of his friends or laughing hysterically at another. The three of them ran down from the stands and hit James just as he climbed off his broom.

"You won!" Sirius shouted again, "the first match, and we won!"

"You were brilliant, James!" Peter exclaimed.

James beamed at them. "Remus! You came!"

"'Course I did," Remus grinned back. "Wouldn't miss it."

"Oi!" Gregory Vance appeared, clapping James on the shoulder. "Party in the Gryffindor common room tonight!"

The celebrations took a long time to die down. By the end of the night, Remus fell into bed exhausted, not having done any of his homework — but happy. The latest full moon had slipped away into the fuzzier banks of his memory, just barely a full day afterward. As Remus dropped quickly off to sleep, his final thought was one of gratitude. Words, even as many as Remus knew, could not express how happy he was at Hogwarts.

* * *

><p><em>Author's note: I apologize for the lateness of this post, which corrosponds directly with the probable errors  general crappiness of this chapter. And I'm even more sorry that I probably won't have a chapter up tomorrow. Term papers kill creativity, and I've put this one off way too long. I'll get the next chapter up as soon as humanly possible. In the meantime and for future moments, anybody have a few good prank ideas? I've been asking myself "What would Fred and George do?" with some success, but Plan B's are always appreciated. Thanks so much to everybody who reviewed, I'm really glad you guys are liking the story. _

_See you next time!_


	15. Up to No Good

How a simple knock managed to be irritable, Peter never understood. But then, Remus was good at a lot of things, and one of them appeared to be conveying irritation at his best mates without saying a single word.

"I nominate Sirius to get the door," James said quickly. Sirius sighed and levered himself upright. The three of them had been sprawled across the dormitory floor for about an hour now; Remus had stayed in the common room to finish his homework. Now that he had returned, he was locked out — nothing personal, but if it _hadn't _been Remus, the interruption probably could have resulted in detentions.

Remus' voice came through the door, slightly muffled. "James," he called. "Let me in." Peter grinned slightly. Remus usually knew exactly who to appeal to: James' chivalrous nature, Peter's eagerness to please, or Sirius' stomach.

The aforementioned Black sprang to his feet and scrambled for the door. "Identify yourself!" he cried, grinning.

Peter heard a slight sigh of resignation and knew that Remus had just pulled out his wand. "_I,_" he replied sarcastically, "am Remus John Lupin, the one whose Charms homework you stole last week, and who is going to blast down this door in a moment and then proceed to tell the whole school your most embarrassing secret." He paused. "Three… two…"

Sirius yanked the door open. "No need to get tetchy," he chided. He cocked his head to the side. "Just out of curiosity, which secret were you referring to?"

Remus brushed past him. "The one about you sleeping with a bean-baby koala, which during the day lives tucked into your curtains where no one will ever find it — unless, by chance, someone happens to be looking frantically for their stolen Charms homework and resorts to shaking out said curtains." He smiled sweetly. "That one."

Sirius gaped at him. James laughed. "Perfect," he called, "Rem's in a troublemaking mood. C'mere." He jumped up and seized Remus, practically dragging him over to the huddle. Peter scooted over to make room for the resigned, reluctant mischief-maker.

"Okay," Sirius began, eyes glinting. "Where you joined us, dearest Remus, we'd just decided to make a creative use of that Babbling Hex. So, the next question is, what's the best way to distribute said hex to the student body?"

"It has to be something we can avoid," Remus said quickly. "I refuse to babble all day long."

"If we put the original hex on an object," James mused, "like a painting or a statue, and extend it so that people who walk past get it…"

"You're talking about a contagious charm now," Sirius said with raised eyebrows. He nodded. "I like it. Only first-level contagion shouldn't be too hard, and then we don't have to worry about catching it."

"Which painting should it be?" Remus asked.

"One of the ones along the stairs," Peter suggested. "Everybody goes up and down the stairs."

"Including _us_!" Remus cried in exasperation, but James shook his head excitedly.

"Not necessarily. How about the main staircase from the third floor to the fourth? We can take the secret stairs behind the unicorn tapestry."

Remus hesitated. "Right… okay…" Then suddenly he grinned, and they all remembered why he was part of their pranking plans. "I have an idea. What if we were to do a Rhyming Jinx instead of the Babbling Hex?"

There was a moment of silence as this was processed. Then all four boys were suddenly grinning, then giggling, then outright laughing as they pictured it. "Remus, you're brilliant!" James gasped.

Sirius cackled gleefully. "Oh, I hope a teacher gets it…"

"I know the perfect painting!" Peter exclaimed suddenly. Remus' addition to the prank had caused him to remember it. "There's a portrait of a mad poet on the landing of the fourth floor staircase. I just remembered because he shouts at me in verse whenever I walk by…"

James and Sirius roared with laughter again. Remus had a hand stuffed against his mouth — although with the company he had, it was useless, really, to try to stifle the noise. Peter grinned in pride and anticipation. Usually it was James and Sirius who came up with and performed the good pranks, sometimes borrowing Remus' spell proficiency. Peter always loved it when one of his ideas, no matter how small, became part of the final product.

"Okay," James chuckled, finally getting down to business. "We need to get both spells down, then…"

"I've got a _lovely _picture of a _dear _cousin over here somewhere," Sirius supplied, scrambling over to his trunk. "We can practice on her."

* * *

><p><em>Author's note: well, some finals down and some more to go, still scrambling to get my term paper finished on time, but I figured I should at least let some people know I haven't died. So this is part one of the great rhyming prank, inspired slightly by the curse of the Apollo cabin in Rick Riordan's The Last Olympian… yeah, yeah, not mine either, but hey, pranks are pranks and I can borrow if I want to. So next time (could be tomorrow, if we're lucky, probably the day after) we shall see the rhyming chaos that ensues…<em>

_Thanks a billion to everybody who reviewed, I'm pretty sure that's what kept me thinking about this and not losing my mind to the world of thematic devices in literature these past few days… the end is in sight! See ya next time._


	16. Mad Poets

The next morning dawned over four shifty-eyed and yawning second-years at the Gryffindor table. They'd spent half the night in front of the painting of the nutter poet, covered in James' Invisibility Cloak, whispering the spells they'd prepared, on tenterhooks just waiting for a teacher to happen by. There had been one close call with Professor Armand, a grumpy old hag who taught Defense Against the Dark Arts this year; Sirius had been sorely tempted to hex her, but his voice of reason — named Remus — had reminded him that attacking a cranky ex-Auror in the wee hours of the morning was a very, very bad idea. Finally they had darted away as the painting woke up, and scrambled back to the tower for their school things before taking the secret passages down to the Great Hall, where they eagerly awaited the arrival of the rest of the students.

"_Why?_" Sirius couldn't help but hiss as another pair of Ravenclaw girls came into the Hall, yawning. "Why have they picked today to be so bloody _quiet?_"

"It worked, Sirius," James said confidently under his breath. "We'll see it in a bit…"

"Patience, Grasshopper," Remus added with a wry twitch of his lips.

Sirius frowned at him, slightly confused. "What have insects got to do with anything?"

Remus laughed as he explained. "It's a Muggle saying. The wise old Master calls his young, impatient pupil Grasshopper… my dad used to call me that."

"Hm," Sirius grumbled, glaring at a little group of silent first-year Hufflepuffs. They shot him a frightened look and scampered off to their table, whispering together. "Argh! Speak up, munchkins!"

James burst out laughing. "It's a good think you can avoid the hex," he chuckled. "Or maybe not, because I'd love to see you try to rhyme something with 'munchkins'."

…

Lily Evans bounded down the stairs to the Great Hall. "Come _on,_ Marlene."

"Keep your hair on," her blond friend muttered, clutching the railing with only half-open eyes.

"If we miss breakfast because you overslept," threatened Alice, a very non-threatening-looking girl, "I shall feel no qualms about hexing you, my dear friend."

"I'm quaking in my boots." Marlene rolled her eyes. "Anyways, you couldn't hit water if you fell out of a boat." She staggered slightly across the landing, forcing Lily to catch her sleepy friend before she tumbled down the third flight of stairs.

"You're wearing slippers still, not boots," Alice pointed out. "And if my wand won't work, I'll rip some hair out by the roots." She giggled, ruining the threat. "Hey, that rhymed."

Lily smiled at her cheerful friend. "You're a poet and you didn't know it," she added, grinning.

"She can make a rhyme any time!" Marlene chipped in, laughing as she darted down the stairs with Alice chasing after her.

The three girls giggle briefly about their exchange, unaware that a surprising number of people were having close to the same conversation…

…

By break time, the school had realized that the majority of students, and some teachers, were unable to speak unless their sentences rhymed. Most were bewildered. Some were livid. A very, _very_ few (mostly Ravenclaws) seemed to not only find it funny, but actually enjoyed it. A handful clammed up and refused to speak at all. Many had very strong suspicions as to who the culprits were. No one seemed to be able to remove the charm, though not for lack of trying. Quite a few were amused, but none more so than the four boys hidden safely out of sight behind a false wall on the second floor, listening to the outrage in the corridor.

"This is fantastic," Peter exclaimed happily, as an unfamiliar voice echoed throughout the halls (_"Curse me, eh? I'll make you pay! I don't want to rhyme all day!") _"It's chaos - glorious, rhyming chaos." He grinned madly.

"This is ridiculous," Remus corrected him, a delighted grin never leaving his face.

"I have never heard so much creativity and effort put into swearing," Sirius snickered as McGonagall's dulcet tones reprimanded a particularly foul-mouthed student. "And that's saying something."

"I suppose it does make it harder, when forced to rhyme," James agreed philosophically. "And, probably also more inclined to keep at it."

"They seem pretty sure it was us," Peter pointed out, looking slightly worried for the first time that day.

James waved a hand. "No one can prove anything, so if anyone hexes us in retaliation they'll be the ones in trouble!"

Remus raised his eyebrows. "Somehow that doesn't reassure me very much…"

Sirius shook his head, a grin still splitting his face. "This is a mark of things to come, lads. By the time we leave school, we'll be legend."

…

"This stopped being funny hours ago," Marlene moaned, dropping her head onto the table at lunch. "I wish that for once, they would just let it go."

"That isn't their style," Alice sighed. "Knowing them, we'll be talking like this for a while."

Lily said nothing, and stabbed a fork into her pasta. She pressed her lips together to keep from venting, as she knew by now that it was difficult to come up with enough swear words which rhymed with the boys' names — though she did know some very good ones. Her dad was never very quiet when he was in the garage tinkering with the family's often-malfunctioning car.

She sighed, stabbing her food again as if it were the source of all her woes. In reality, the source — sources, plural, were sitting half table away, grinning like fools and talking animatedly — since they could do so freely, being four of a small handful of students not being forced to rhyme. The biggest problem, Lily decided, was that they saw all the humor in their pranks, but none of the annoyance. She could admit that both existed, but by the end it was normally no longer as funny as it had seemed at first.

Suddenly Lily grinned.

"When your evil smile is that scary and daunting," Marlene said, eying her, "the idea you've come up with is sure to be haunting."

"They're the ones started it, looking for trouble," Lily began loftily. "We ought to return it, on the double. They'll take off the hex if they can't get away from people insulting them in rhyme the whole day."

…

"Mate," Sirius said to James as they left their last class of the day, "they're _still _following us."

James glanced over his shoulder at a new outbreak of rhyming. "And their group seems to have grown."

Remus shook his head slightly, fighting down a smirk. "I think they're quite amusing."

Sirius shot him a look. "Well, yeah, they _were_ — for a bit. And I notice that they don't seem to be insulting you nearly as much."

"It's hard to rhyme with Lupin and Pettigrew," Peter chimed in cheerfully.

"Really?" Sirius shot another glance at Remus, this one the beginnings of a smirk. "We could always go find Peeves to sing the 'loony loopy Lupin' song for you again, if you're feeling left out, Remmy."

"Call me that one more time and you'll be the one trying to rhyme swear words," Remus muttered darkly. "In the hospital wing."

Sirius smirked wider, fully prepared to enter into a threat war, but he was drowned out by the now-familiar voice of a particularly persistent redhead.

"Well, some say they're funny, those young prankster lads; Some think they're clever, not really half-bad; I happen to know that they're simply quite mad; And too drawn to chaos, when it's to be had."

"Chaos is fun, Evans," James protested, turning to face her with a grin. "Where's your sense of humor?"

This would be good. Sirius turned around as well, to see their classmate's reaction. Lily's wit and temper matched and sometimes surpassed James' — whether they talked or argued, whenever they were together they were entertaining.

Lily glared at him. "It's gone into hiding from your stupid charm, now take it off me before I do you real harm."

"She's good at this," Sirius snickered. "I think we should leave it on her."

The green eyes flashed as the willow wand came out. "Oh, you think it's funny, so ha-bloody-ha — here's funny for you: _rictusempra!_"

The charm hit him in the stomach and he instantly doubled over as a thousand invisible hands began tickling him. Normally Sirius Black was not all that ticklish, but he had his weak points and Evans' excellent jinx attacked them all. Sirius dropped to his knees, wheezing with helpless laughter and glaring at his friends, who were too busy laughing themselves to help him.

"J-James!" he gasped. "Rem! Help!"

James and Remus exchanged amused glanced, then looked at Evans and her friends. They looked back at Sirius, and each other.

"Thieves or sheep?"

"I think thieves. Not a good time to be a sheep."

"Agreed."

"Perhaps…?"

"_FINITE!" _James shouted suddenly, his wand directed at Sirius. At once he could stand, and he could run like the wind. The four boys sprinted away from Evans and her rhyming gang, gaining the safety of a secret passage but refusing to stop until they were positive no one had found and followed them.

Sirius slid down the wall of the passage, clutching a stitch in his side. "Bloody—hell—" he gasped out. "Never — _never _— let Evans hex you. She's almost — as good as — we are."

"No one's as good as we are," James contradicted quite cheerfully.

* * *

><p><em>Author's note: sorry for the very late update on this. I'm finally free of a metric shit-ton of studying (excuse my french) and then trying to write this bit sort of made me want to bang my head against a wall — so thanks to Fantasy Wizard Witch for a suggestion that made it a little more bearable, it was their idea to have Lily tag along and annoy James with rhymes. Some of them I adapted from Peeves, who often seems to break out into obnoxious songs, so who better to borrow from? And the italicized line is from Rick Riordan's 'The Last Olympian', another excellent book which I don't own but I recommend to anyone who hasn't read it. I'm afraid I'm not the best with pranks, I should reread the books and mark down some of the stuff the Weasley twins got up to… oh, well. Anyway, updates should be back to regular schedule now! Thanks a billion to everyone who reviewed and favorited and whatnot. See ya later!<em>


	17. The Greatest Plan

James burst into the library, ducked Pince, and dashed eagerly over to their table. Sirius raised an eyebrow at him. "You look rather excited, James," he commented.

That was an understatement: James' always untidy hair stood up as if he'd been zapped by lightning, his glasses were askew, his tie undone and his robes on crookedly. But he beamed at them as he dropped his bag and leaned on the table, bending close to whisper.

"We," he gestured to himself, Sirius, and Peter, "are going to be Animagi."

For a moment there was dead silence around the table. James' broad grin didn't waver, however, as he pulled up a chair and flopped down in it.

Remus spoke first. "You," he gestured at James, "are crazy."

"I, too, am inclined to ask what you have been smoking," Sirius said, letting his chair fall to the floor. "And also why I was not included."

It was Peter who asked the question James had been waiting for. "How, and why?"

"Okay, well, why is easiest," James whispered. He pulled his chair closer and sat on his knees, so that he could lean forward further. "So, I was reading ahead in the DADA book—"

"James!" Sirius admonished. "Only Remus reads his textbooks!"

"Shaddup, Sirius, just listen. So _yes I was reading my textbook_, and there's a chapter on werewolves, and it mentions a couple of times that the condition is passed on when a werewolf bites a human, okay so far? So I had this idea, and I checked it against some other books here, even snuck into the Restricted Section—"

"That's where you went?" Peter gasped. "Since when have you used the Invisibility Cloak to get into the _library_?"

"Since I had to be sure!" James hissed. "Now, listen to me, Remus especially before you start yelling, I am one hundred percent sure of this. Werewolves can't pass on the condition to other animals, _including Animagi_."

"Okay," Sirius said, frowning, "but I still don't…" he trailed off. His grey eyes widened. "You mean…"

Remus had seen where James was going, too. "No," he snapped. "No, no, _hell _no, definitely—"

"That's brilliant," Peter breathed.

"No, it isn't!" Remus hissed, fighting to keep his voice down, one wary eye on the evil librarian.

"Rem," James said, "we could help."

Remus turned the evil eye on him. "No. Bloody. Way. James. Potter."

"Ooh, the last name! Tough, Remus, I've made up my mind." James folded his arms over his chest and leaned back. "We are going to learn to be Animagi so that we can help you with your furry little problem."

"My furry—" Remus choked. "James," he sputtered, "you—I— it's more of a rabid, bloodthirsty, limb-tearing, howling, out-of-control problem—"

"Which also happens to be furry, so that's what I'm going to call it," James interrupted cheerfully. "After all, your way is kind of a mouthful. Anyway, I know how hard it is, I've been sneaking into the Restricted Section all week, _and _I even very discreetly askedMcGonagall a few innocent questions — guys, I've actually done my homework on this one. You should be proud of me, Remmy," he added with a cheeky grin.

Remus did not look proud, or mollified, or relieved in any way. "James," he said quietly, "this is honestly the worst idea I've ever heard, including Sirius' most recent plot to get Snape thrown out…"

"Hey!" Sirius said indignantly. "I take offense! Just for that, I'm in, James."

"I am, too," Peter said. "What do we have to do?"

"Come up to the dormitory," James ordered, standing up. He snatched his bag and raced out of the library, dodging Madame Pince again, and sprinted through four secret passageways to avoid the crowded corridors. His heart was still beating hard from his feverish searching, and he felt as if he couldn't sit still, couldn't walk, had to run. He really wanted to fly, but since the books he'd nicked weren't in the broom shed, he settled for tearing madly through the passageways. He burst out from behind a tapestry of some poor sod fighting a dragon (James could never remember his name, which made Remus declare at least once a week that James was going to fail History of Magic. James always retorted that if anyone was stupid enough to actually fight against a dragon for no particular reason, then they deserved to be forgotten.) He skidded to a stop in front of the Fat Lady, who raised an eyebrow at him.

"Don't give me that look," James protested. "_Diamond dust_."

"Fine, then," she said with a good amount of skepticism, as she swung forward. James chucked his bag through the entrance and scrambled after it. He darted up to the second-years' dormitory, ignoring the stares of his fellow students and one half-hearted reprimand from a prefect.

Moments after he arrived in their dorm, his three friends burst through the door. "So," Sirius prompted, his grey eyes shining with excitement, "do tell!"

"Yes," Remus said sarcastically, "do tell us of your newest scheme to get you all expelled, infected, or killed."

James sat down on his bed, then reached underneath. "I wish you wouldn't put me down so, Remus," he said with his head under his four-poster. "This is for you, after all."

"I fail to see how losing my best — my _only _friends is to my benefit."

James sat up abruptly. "What're you talking about?"

Remus flopped down on his own bed, staring at the ceiling. "I do appreciate the sentiment, James, but it's far too dangerous. At _best_, you'll be expelled for experimenting with this kind of magic. You could end up in Azkaban for being illegal Animagi, if you do manage it. If by some miracle you manage it without getting caught at some point, one mistake and you'll either be werewolves yourselves, and we'll all be expelled, or I could hurt you — I could _kill _you. James, you have no idea how savage the wolf is. And I—" he stopped, and for a moment there was silence in the dormitory.

"Remus." James got up, leaving the books he'd scrounged on his bed, and jumped lightly onto Remus'. The sandy-haired boy picked up a pillow and pressed it over his face as if suffocating himself was his newest answer to everything. James tapped the pillow smartly with his wand, muttered a spell, and blew away the single feather it turned into.

Remus glared accusingly at him. "That's higher level that second year."

"Yes, it is," James said calmly. "I got quite good at some of these over Christmas break. You see, Sirius took on some Remus-y characteristics and got me some books — advanced Transfiguration books. And I borrowed some of my dad's, too, and asked him to show me some stuff… so I've been practicing. And don't get on me for reading textbooks, Sirius, you sent them to me," he warned. He looked back down at his anxious friend. "Remus, this is — what'd you keep calling it, Example A?"

"Exhibit A," Remus muttered, still glaring unnecessarily at James.

"Yeah, okay, Exhibit A. Rem, we're _good _at this stuff. Have a little faith," James said confidently. He placed his hand on his chest. "I'm not stupid, Remus. I swear, we're not going to whip out our wands and try the first spell we come across. We're going to do this properly, but we _are _going to do it. If it takes us years, we're going to do it."

"Why?" Remus asked in a small voice. "Things could go so wrong, James."

James gripped the young werewolf's shoulder. "But they could also get a lot better, Remus. Let's take the hypothetical situations in the other direction from your doom and gloom for a minute 'kay? Let's say that the three of us get to be Animagi without a hitch, and we're big enough to be a match for the werewolf. Then we meet you in the Shrieking Shack at the full moon — and you won't have to be alone."

"What good will that do?" Remus asked hoarsely.

James shrugged. "I'm not entirely sure," he admitted. "But you shouldn't have to be alone. And maybe if you can romp with us you won't beat yourself up so much."

"You don't _romp _with a _werewolf_, James—"

"Remus," Sirius interjected, "if it could help, I think it's worth any shot in the dark."

"We don't like seeing you come back hurt, Remus," Peter added solemnly. "Remember when we figured it out, we asked you if there was anything we could do to help. Anything, Rem, and we meant it."

Remus threw his hands into the air. "Fine! If you're dead set on being as stupid and irrational and — and — trouble-magnet-ish as possible—"

"Trouble magnet-ish?" James snickered.

Remus glared at him. But as Sirius and then Peter joined in the muffled laughter, their rule-abiding dorm-mate had to work hard to hide the grin twitching at his lips. Finally, with a groan of defeat, he laughed weakly. "James," he muttered, "if you don't get killed, remind me to thank you all for being idiots."

James grinned down at him. "I always knew we were your favorite idiots," he teased fondly. "Oi! Sirius! Grab a book!"


	18. For Now

Exams were finished. Most people were packed. The sun shone cheerfully down on four boys, sharing the shade of a beech tree by the side of the lake.

"What're we going to do when school's over?" Sirius asked out of the blue.

"It _is _over," Peter reminded him. "We leave in the morning."

"No, I mean _over_, over. When we're of age and we never get to come back." He flopped onto his back, lacing his hands behind his head.

"I imagine not much changes," James yawned, leaning back against the tree. "A job instead of school, right? But we'll still have time for other things." He grinned lazily at Sirius. "I can't imagine that we won't prank our bosses at least a few times."

Remus sat with his elbows on his knees, staring across the Black Lake. "Are we still gonna be friends?" he asked in a would-be casual voice. "Once we've all got different jobs and different homes and things…" He pushed away the gloomy voice in his head which reminded him, inevitably, that he mightn't have a job and a home. No matter what marks he got, not with his condition.

Sirius sat up in alarm. "'Course!" he exclaimed. "Why d'you even ask, Remus?"

He managed a small smile. "Well, like you said… we'll never get to come back. And I think things might be a lot different."

"Well, some things never change, Remus," James assured him.

"Yeah," Peter chimed in. "I can't imagine that you'll ever dislike chocolate, or James' hair will lie flat, or I'll get full marks on a Transfiguration exam, or that we wouldn't be friends."

James grinned, ruffling his hair absently. "Good point, that. So don't worry, Remus." He crawled forward until he was lying on his stomach between Remus and Sirius. "Quidditch World Cup's this summer. England versus Brazil, and you're all coming whether you like it or not. Nowhere near a full moon, I already checked — and Mum's already owled all your parents, so it's settled."

Remus shook his head fondly, grinning. "I see. Couldn't escape you if we wanted to, could we?"

"My traps are flawless," James grinned back, his glasses winking in the sunlight.

"Speaking of traps, are we doing another end-of-year prank this year?"

"Merlin's pants, Pete, what have we been working on for the past week?" Sirius exclaimed, rolling his eyes.

Peter flushed. "Well, I was studying and Remus was helping me, so I guess I foolishly assumed that you and James were studying, too."

"We're just brilliant without having to try," Sirius said loftily. "No, no, dear Peter, since the goody-two-shoes Ravenclaws have already won the House Cup for this year, we're not going to try to be good."

James chuckled. "We have been, are, and will always be up to no good around this school." He rolled over onto his back. "I don't think we should be worried so much about what happens after seventh year as whether coffee or pumpkin juice will react less dramatically with our potion…"

Very few moments were quiet when these four boys were present, but for now, things were at least simple.

* * *

><p><em>Author's note: pretty short, unfortunately — but, the end of another year! Thank you so much to everybody who read and reviewed and enjoys this story. First part of third year will be up tomorrow: in a bit they start new classes! Any requests for class or homework scenes will be taken under consideration, as well as any other moments you guys might like to see. So, til next time.<em>


	19. Worries

James stood at the window of the compartment he'd chosen, staring at the crowd without seeing anyone. His parents had had to drop him off and leave early. At the time he hadn't minded, but now he wished that he'd had a few more minutes with them. His father's job as an Auror had called him away early that morning, and his mother had been unable to tell him exactly why she was needed at home. James was thirteen now, and he'd instantly proclaimed that he didn't need his parents to see him off at the platform. But now, without his friends there, a niggling worry rose to the surface. His father was one of the best, but his job was dangerous and he was getting old. James knew when his parents tried to hide things from him — they didn't do it often, and when they tried it showed woefully. There was something that neither of them would tell James outright, but the way his mum had ushered him onto the train during their hurried goodbye told him a lot.

The Potters were worried, and he didn't know why. James realized that his left hand, resting against the window, had curled into a fist; his right hand, in his pocket, fingered his wand in a purposeful sort of way.

The loud thump and curse of a trunk being dropped on a foot distracted him from his brooding. "Hey," Sirius panted, pushing his hair out of his eyes. He'd grown it out since James had last seen him, so that it fell into his face with a kind of careless elegance. James thought wryly of his own hair, as black as Sirius' but infinitely messier. There was simply nothing to be done about James' hair — his mother had given up a long time ago.

"Hello yourself," he greeted his best friend. "Have a good rest of the summer?"

Sirius shrugged carelessly, lifting his trunk. "All right. Same as usual. You?"

James frowned very slightly. "Well enough," he replied, wondering what Sirius wasn't telling him. "I wish you could've stayed longer."

"Yeah, well." Sirius stowed his trunk with a slight grunt of effort. "Me, too," he admitted, dusting his hands off. "But god forbid I completely avoid the harpy the whole summer. She thinks that she's still got time to put some manners into me." He snorted, shoving his hands into his pockets. "And my cousin got married. Horrible affair. Had to wear dress robes and be civil with Malfoy." He shuddered.

"Sounds even worse than my summer," puffed a small voice from the doorway. Peter had arrived, dragging his trunk with the usual amount of effort. James helped him stow it, since experience told him that they would all come to harm if Peter tried to do it himself. The smallest of their friends was just on time; the train gave its shriek and began to move just as the three of them took their seats.

"Where's Rem?" Peter asked, frowning slightly.

James and Sirius shared a look. "It's full moon tonight," James said quietly. "He's coming by Floo tomorrow night."

"Oh. Is he taking any classes that we're not?"

"Just Ancient Runes, and he said that he's talked with someone already for notes," James explained.

"Who?" Sirius asked without much interest. Then he looked at James incredulously. "Wait, you're taking Arithmancy?"

"Yeah." James sighed dramatically. "Just kill me now. I'll be taking complicated notes while you're fooling around in Muggle Studies, playing with matches or something."

Sirius clapped him on the shoulder. "Good for you, mate. Taking one for the team."

"Yeah, well, we can divvy up the note-taking between the three of us. He always complains about something, no matter whose notes they are. Peter doesn't take enough, Sirius' handwriting is illegible, I have more doodles than notes… the list goes on." Sirius and Peter laughed, but then a sobering thought struck James. He checked that their compartment door was shut; for good measure, he locked the door with his wand and cast a clever charm his mother had taught him, to garble their conversation on the off chance that they were overheard. "Listen, I wanted to talk about Remus. Besides becoming Animagi, what can we do for him?"

Sirius nodded slowly, gazing out the window. "It may take us a while — James and I did some more research over the summer, Pete, and it's about the most complicated piece of magic you can do. It's wandless and nonverbal, for starters — doesn't mean we have to master that before we can do it, but there's an indicator. There have been seven Animagi in the last century, and McGonagall's one of them. It's not just a Transfiguration from human to animal, it's sort of a purposefully broken Transfiguration: animal body and human mind."

Peter stared unhappily down at the floor. "You guys may have to do it without me," he murmured miserably.

"Nah, we'll help you," James promised. "It's just, Remus…" he chewed on his lip for a moment, wondering how to put his words.

"I think we should make sure he gets back okay," Sirius stated quietly. His grey eyes narrowed slightly at the countryside flashing by. "I worried about him this summer. I'm sure his parents and the school nurses and everyone take care of him… but I hate not knowing. Until we can keep him company, I want to at least make sure he's alright after."

James nodded. "I agree. It's just one night a month. We can take it in shifts, and take the Invisibility Cloak."

"Um…" Peter fidgeted. "I mean, I'll definitely take my turn — but he's always been alright before."

James sighed quietly. "Yeah, he has. But sometimes the transformations can get really bad during the teenage years. I just want to make sure." He twiddled his wand between his fingers. "Maybe it seems kind of dumb. But I'd just sleep easier knowing that he's okay."

Peter nodded. "Okay. So we're going to do it. Do we let Remus know?"

James and Sirius glanced at each other, and answered simultaneously. "No."

"He doesn't like the amount of time we devote to learning about Animagi," Sirius added. "How d'you think he'd take to knowing that we were losing sleep once a month, too?"

Peter nodded again. "Probably not well. Right. I also think we should have a stash of emergency chocolate." James and Sirius grinned in agreement. "So," Peter continued, "while Remus isn't here to heavy-sigh his disapproval, tell me more about becoming an Animagus."

* * *

><p><em>Author's note: just a quick thanks to everybody who reviewed! <em>


	20. The True Art of Divination

"I'm done for tonight," James declared, closing his textbook with a snap.

"Excellent! Me too," Sirius cried, going one further and flinging his copy of _Mysteries of Muggles _across the room. "Check the door, Peter, before we begin our super secret study session, which is much more interesting and mustn't be overheard—"

Remus shot him a hard look. "Now, I don't protest nearly as much as I should about this—"

"But just as much as anyone possibly _could_," James sighed.

Remus ignored him. "But if you are dead set on doing this, you _have _to get your homework done first. _Have to._"

"Remus," Sirius whined, before he was fixed with the Lupin Death Glare, possibly the most formidable Death Glare of their group, despite the boy's quiet nature. James grinned and tossed a pillow across the dormitory, distracting Remus from boring his amber eyes through Sirius' truant skull.

"Fine, we'll do it. What is it we have left?"

"Astrology for ruddy Divination," Sirius muttered. "Predicting the future based on the stars, what bollocks is that?"

"Why'd you take the class?" Remus asked with amusement.

"Mummy dearest said it was rubbish," Sirius answered promptly.

Remus rolled his eyes. "So you took it to see if she was right?"

"Of course not," Sirius scoffed. "I took it to annoy her, and I'm going to get an Outstanding on that OWL, 'cos I'm brilliant that way. In the meantime…" He picked up a blank roll of parchment and a quill, and bounded across the room to join James on the floor by his bed — noticeably leaving behind the charts and equations he was supposed to be using to calculate the stars' effect on his future. "So, mate, what's happening to us next month?"

James grinned. "Well, let's see what the planets have in store." He flicked through his textbook, chewing thoughtfully on the end of his quill. "Er… all right, on Monday, I will… be in danger of burns, due to the, er, unfortunate proximity of Mars to the Andromeda constellation…"

"I've got a cousin named Andromeda," Sirius noted, "and speaking of family, I think on Monday _I'll _receive an unexpected piece of news — hopefully that the harpy's kicked the bucket—"

"You're going to _make it all up?_" Remus sputtered, staring at them over his careful transcription of runes.

James beamed at him. "Yes, indeed, Remmy dearest! Pete, come join us in our foretelling of our miserable fortunes, why don't you?"

"Okay," Peter said eagerly. "Um… what shall I do on Monday?"

"Fall down some stairs," Sirius suggested. Peter nodded enthusiastically and scribbled it down. "'Cos of Jupiter's conjunction with Mercury or something…"

Remus gave a snort that surpassed all the others that hour. James and Sirius looked up at him in mild interest. "Yes, Rem?" Sirius asked innocently.

"Isn't it going to be a bit _obvious_," the young werewolf began scathingly, rolling his eyes again, "that you just fudged it all?"

"One of these days you're going to pull an eye muscle doing that, Remus," James cautioned. "Ooh, good idea, eyes… maybe I'll break my glasses…"

"Professor Cassiam is the oldest, battiest teacher in the school," Sirius assured Remus, now noting down in great detail how Neptune would cause him to misplace all his schoolwork the next Wednesday. "All she likes to do anymore is tell us how we're doomed to failure and misery. So, if we go bravely forward in that vein, we'll get full credit, and that's really all that matters." He glanced up at their scandalized friend and grinned.

"We've done this before, Remus," Peter added, peering upside-down at James' copy of _Unfogging the Future _for new ideas. "When we did tea leaves the first week, after staring into the cups — the tea was awful, by the way — for about ten minutes, James said something about meeting a tall, dark, soggy stranger, and from there we decided to make it all up. What d'you suppose could happen when the Moon lines up with Venus like that?" He pointed at a diagram in the book.

Sirius glanced over James' shoulder. "That appears to be late March…" he grinned at Peter. "That alignment is a sure sign that a midget in glasses is being born, Mr. Pettigrew…"

"Oh, you're hilarious," James said sarcastically, throwing an elbow into Sirius' ribs as he rolled around laughing. An odd snuffling noise caught his attention, and he looked up. His jaw dropped. "Traitor!" he accused, reached up to his bed for another pillow. He hurled it at Remus, who took it full in the face and fell over, abandoning his attempt to stifle his laughter.

"I'm sorry," he gasped, propping himself back up on his elbows. "Except I'm really not — oh, please do continue with making it up, this is the funniest thing I've witnessed in a while…"

James allowed himself to grin back and retrieved his quill. "Very well… with permission from Professor Lupin over there…"

"I think on Friday you'll come off on the wrong end of a curse," Remus threatened. "I'm perfectly willing to supply that if no one else will — after all, who am I to question the fate the heavens have in store for you?"

"Good one, Rem," James said happily, noting it down with a suppressed snigger.

Making up enough unfortunate accidents and odd happenings for the three of them took a surprisingly short amount of time, especially once Remus gave in and joined them; his contributions were much appreciated for their creativity, seeing as he read so much more than the rest of them and had all sorts of interesting ideas. Finally James threw open his trunk and reached underneath his Invisibility Cloak for their stash of information on Animagi.

"How d'you know what you'll transform into?" Remus asked, his eyes going a little wide at the sight of all the notes James and Sirius had amassed over the summer. "I mean, there's really no point if you all turn into sparrows and butterflies, the wolf will just ignore you… or eat you… might do that anyway, though…"

James ignored the dark turn of his friend's honest question. "All the books I've read say that we can't choose. Also, this one… or maybe this one…" James picked up a few books and flicked through them. "Anyway, one of these said that we'd turn into the same animal that our Patronus Charm would take the shape of."

Remus raised an eyebrow. "So, more advanced magic first to see what you'd even transform into."

Sirius was flicking through the books, too. He glanced up at Remus. "Patronus Charms are good to know, anyway," he said. "Have you seen the _Daily Prophet _lately? Some of the Dementors of Azkaban have gone rogue, they've attacked six Muggles and two wizards in the past month." He set the book aside and sat up straight. "Lads, this brings me to something I wanted to talk about earlier. I think we should take some Defense Against the Dark Arts into our own hands."

"How do you mean?" James asked, also closing his book.

"Well, we've had a slipshod collection of teachers — the last two were utter rubbish, and this year's model isn't looking too promising, either — and I think that we could do better with the right books."

"The right books…" Remus murmured. His head snapped up, and his eyes gleamed. "Guys, I have something to show you, too." He stood and picked up James' Invisibility Cloak from the floor. "C'mon, everybody up, you've really got to see this."

"What're you hiding from us, Rem?" Sirius asked accusingly as he scrambled to his feet.

Remus grinned and threw the Cloak over them. "I'd read about it, but I only just found it today, while you three were in the kitchens stealing food again—"

"It isn't stealing, Remus, they give it away—"

"Shush," James whispered as they pushed past the Fat Lady.

"Who's there?" she called sharply, but they never answered. James rolled his eyes at her, even though she couldn't see. _Nosy old bat…_

"Here," Remus whispered, slipping out from underneath the Cloak. James frowned at the blank stretch of wall Remus was pacing in front of. On the boy's third pass, a plain black door appeared from nowhere and the three boys under the Cloak gasped.

Remus grinned and pulled the door open. "Welcome to the Room of Requirement," he whispered.

* * *

><p><em>Author's Note: I'd forgotten how much I loved the Divination classes. "What d'you reckon that means?" "I dunno, probably that you'll be eaten by a giant marshmellow or something…" One of my favorite lines in the books, I didn't get to work it in because the midget in glasses fit better… oh, well. Fun times ahead, with more Quidditch, because I loved it and missed it dearly in the later movies, more interesting and not-so-interesting classes, full moons, and of course a sizable amount of mischief…<br>__A trillion and seven thank-you's to everyone who reviewed, and sorry for the lateness of this chapter, but it is still technically Tuesday, so…  
><em>_See ya later!_


	21. The Marauders' List

"This is possibly the coolest room in the whole world," James declared happily as he finally flopped down on a squashy red sofa which had just appeared for him. Remus smiled slightly and put his book aside. For the last hour James and Sirius had taken it upon themselves to test the Room's capabilities and parameters: including, but not limited to, asking for innumerable joke products, objects that they recalled from home, cushions and various other small or soft items to fling at each other, and a direct secret passage to the kitchens. Things that the Room would not produce included food itself, and completed Potions essays.

"So," Remus said, marking his page and settling his book back on its shelf. The four boys settled in a rough circle in replicas of their favorite seats, around a round table. "We came up here to…"

"Right!" Sirius exclaimed, clapping his hands together. "Working on secret projects. Well, the Room meets with wholehearted approval — it's perfect. So now, what's first?"

"I think we should start by making a list," Peter said. As he spoke, a piece of parchment, a bottle of ink, and a fine quill appeared on the table. The boys stared at it for a moment before Peter went on, "Er… a list of all the things we want to learn how to do before we're, erm, supposed to learn them."

"Remus, you write," Sirius demanded. "You've got the best handwriting."

Remus muttered something under his breath, but he sat down and dipped the quill in the ink. He wrote a number _1 _on the paper; it gleamed Gryffindor-scarlet while Remus looked up at his friends.

"Number one," James proclaimed. "Become Animagi."

Remus sighed — then a mischievous smile curved his lips and he bent over the parchment to write.

After half an hour or so, they gathered around to examine The List.

_1. Three idiots will become illegal Animagi, despite the protestations of Wizarding law, common sense, and their only intelligent friend._

_2. All of us will learn to perform a Patronus Charm — ostensibly to ward off Dementors, but really the three abovementioned idiots are more concerned about their animal forms than protecting their souls (although that is making the huge assumption that Sirius still has one.)_

_3. All of us will learn how to use Occlumency to protect our minds from the Dark Arts (and, apparently, Snape, if James is not simply as paranoid as he seems.) This will require at least one of us to learn Legilimency, since theory can only get us so far — Remus would suggest that he or James do this, as the thought of Sirius becoming even semi-skilled at Legilimency terrifies any rational person._

_4. We will master nonverbal and wandless spellcasting. Let it be noted that as of sixth year, nonverbal magic is part of the curriculum — however, wandless magic is not, and would be exceptionally useful, even with simple spells such as Lumos and Accio (though Remus would like to note that we shouldn't know that spell until next year, anyway.)_ **_(James would like to note that we know a lot of spells we traditionally shouldn't know yet, thank you, Remus.)_**

_5. We will become adept at dueling. Quite aside from James wanting to get the upper hand over Snape, this will be an important skill that could mean the difference between life and death one day._** (Sirius would like to ask if anyone has ever told Remus that he's prone to drama and worry—** _has it ever crossed your mind that I wouldn't worry if I had normal, rational friends? And I am not dramatic.** Guys, you're fighting on the List.**_ **He started it!** Well, end it. **_Thank you, Peter!)_**

James was laughing by the time he took the quill away from his friends. "Nobody else I know," he chuckled, "does the things we find ourselves doing."

"You just don't know anybody as cool and funny as we are," Sirius said as if stating the obvious. Remus rolled his eyes.

"We need nicknames," James said abruptly.

"Why?" Sirius asked, raising his eyebrows.

"Well, look at this list," James said, gesturing with the quill. "It's got Remus and James and Sirius and Peter all over it. Nothing against any of our names, but that's boring! We need cool, undercover nicknames. Oh!" His eyes got wide and excited behind his glasses. "And a name for our group."

"Our group?" Remus asked skeptically.

James folded his arms. "Yes, Remus, our group. Our group of best friends for life. And as I know you're not too keen on Remmy and Loopy—"

"Hey!"

"I rest my case. Your new nickname shall be arriving shortly," James smirked. Remus rolled his eyes.

"Fine," he sighed. "Make up nicknames, if it means so much to you."

"Oh, I will," James said brightly. "I think they should have to do with our Animagus forms. And if anyone asks, we can tell people it's just our Patronuses, since they should look the same."

Remus looked down at the paper. "But I'm not going to be an Animagus," he said quietly.

James ruffled his sandy hair affectionately. "I know that, we'll come up with something. You turn into an animal once a month, too. We all will."

Remus sighed. "James—"

Sirius leaned over and clamped his hand over Remus' mouth. "Don't want to hear it," he sang.

Remus peeled his friend's hand away from his mouth. "I was going to say that I have an idea for our title." He grinned slightly. "Seeing as we're up past curfew, in a secret hidden room, after wandering invisibly around the castle, planning more illegality and other various mischief—"

"Get on with it!" James, Sirius, and Peter cried.

Remus laughed. "We could be the Marauders," he suggested, not without hesitance.

A slow grin spread across James' face. Sirius' grey eyes gleamed delightedly. Peter looked a little less pleased, but Remus was fairly certain that was because he didn't know exactly that the word meant. "It's like brigands, bandits, perhaps," Remus explained quickly. "And I've heard some teachers calling us that before…"

Peter grinned, now, too. "Where do you learn all these words, Remus?" he asked.

Remus shrugged, smiling a little sheepishly. "I read."

"Marauders," James mused, as if trying the word out.

"We are the Marauders!" Sirius declared, springing to his feet with a roguish grin. "Magical mischief-makers! I like it!"

"All in favor shout 'Aye' and hex Sirius," James grinned. He was answered with three 'Aye's and one indignant 'Hey!'

"Motion approved," he crowed, and snatched The List and quill from Remus. At the top he wrote, in large bold letters, **_The Marauder's List_**. Then he ran to the nearest wall and slapped it up against the stone. It stuck there, rather crookedly, and James turned to grin at them. "This is the perfect place to get up to no good," he explained cheerfully. "So since we're here, I think we ought to get started right away."


	22. Slytherin Versus Gryffindor

"Hey." Sirius flopped down in a seat next to James at the Gryffindor table.

"Hey, yourself," James greeted his best friend as Sirius helped himself to the bacon. "You ready?"

"I was born ready," Sirius smirked, reaching for some toast.

"Eat something, James," Remus spoke up mildly from the other side of the table. "We can't have you falling off your broom, faint with hunger."

James blinked. "Oh. Right." He scooped some eggs onto his plate and reached for the orange juice. No coffee before games, he thought reluctantly — he'd grown very fond of the stuff, especially when it had a lot of milk and sugar in it. Remus, giving in to the inevitable, had introduced James to his personal favorite over the summer: it was mostly milk and chocolate, with some strong coffee flavor. It was delicious, but the enormous amount of caffeine sometimes made James' hands shake. He had enough adrenaline already, the morning of a game.

"James, Sirius! If you're ready, the team's headed down to the pitch."

"Coming, Emma," James said instantly, jumping up. Sirius grabbed one last piece of bacon off Remus' plate, and munched it as they followed their Captain out of the Great Hall, to cheers from the Gryffindor, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw tables, and the typical jeers from the Slytherin table. Sirius shot them a cheerfully rude gesture, which Professor McGonagall only ignored because it was a Quidditch day.

"Nice day," James commented as the team marched down to the changing rooms, looking up at the pale blue sky, patchy with clouds but unusually benign for November.

"Bit windy," Emma frowned. "Watch out for that on your long passes."

James grinned at her. "My long passes are perfect, no matter what the weather's like."

Emma rolled her eyes, a rueful smile playing on her face. "Don't get overconfident, Potter."

He snapped a salute. "Never, Captain."

The usual tense silence descended in the changing rooms. James pulled on his scarlet uniform, along with his boots and his Chaser's gloves. He flexed his fingers to work out the eager anxiety coursing through his body. He glanced over at Sirius, who was flipping and catching his short bat absently, switching hands every now and then. James grinned slightly and made a show of edging out of the way. Sirius scowled at him, unable to hide the amused quirk of his lips.

"It's just about time," Emma announced, sweeping out of the Captain's office with her broom in hand. "You all know what to do, you've been brilliant in practice. Most of you know this prep speech thing; Robin, Sirius, basically I'm supposed to say we'll all do our best and we'll win." There were chuckles around the room, as usual. Emma's casual, off-the-cuff approach to Captaining helped as a last-minute tension reliever. James knew that Sirius would be fine — he glanced over at the newest Chaser, fifth-year Robin Kenneth, and saw him relax a little, allowing a grin to cross his slightly pale face.

"Right," Emma declared. "Let's go."

James grabbed his broom and strode down the tunnel. He, Andrea, and Robin made up the last row of the team, following Sirius and George. McKenzie and Emma walked side by side at the front, the first out into the sunlight and the roar of the crowd. The cheers, boos, and commentary rang in the air, but James didn't bother trying to discern the words. It was useless, down here in the thick air near the ground. He heard the whistle, though, crystal clear. The bright red Quaffle was flung into the air, and James shot after it. A green streak raced him to it; James wheeled his broom as he reached out and snagged the ball. The Slytherin player shot past him — by the time he righted his broom, James had tossed the Quaffle to Andrea, who dropped it to Robin as he sped underneath her. James ducked a Bludger and raced alongside Robin as Andrea swooped beneath them. James and Robin flew parallel to each other toward the goals, whipping the Quaffle back and forth to avoid the other players. One of the Beaters, catching on to their play, sent a Bludger pelting toward James just as Robin threw him the ball again. James had a split second to decide if catching the Quaffle was worth a Bludger to the kidneys, before Sirius swooped in and swung his bat with all his might.

"Alright, James?" he shouted cheerfully as the Bludger rocketed away toward the Slytherin Seeker. James grinned in reply, the Quaffle securely in his hands, and sped forward again.

"And it's the Gryffindor Chasers with the Quaffle," the voice of the commentator, a fellow Gryffindor named Lewis Adams, rang across the field. "No point in naming them, really, that Quaffle is a blur — it's Weasley, Potter, and Kenneth in possession, performing a move the team tried to perfect last year, not with as much success as they are displaying this game. Fifth-year Robin Kenneth is new to the team this year, and Merlin he's shaping up, excellent passes between the Gryffindor Chasers — that's a Bludger! But no problem for Andrea Weasley, she's got the Quaffle now, go Andrea — GRYFFINDOR SCORES! Andrea Weasley beats Keeper Marshall for ten points to Gryffindor!"

"Yes!" James shouted, leaning flat down against his broom. The Slytherin Keeper retrieved the Quaffle and threw it to his teammates. James' eyes followed the bright red ball, noting that Robin flew toward the Chaser who caught it; James veered left and flew several feet above another Chaser, marking her in case the pass came. She was fast, he noted, but not an especially good technical flier. James saw the pass about to come, and looped around her neatly — her long ponytail whipped around as she tried to follow his movement, and she fumbled the Quaffle. James dove sharply and snatched it from the air, racing back toward the Slytherin goals.

Andrea and Robin wheeled and flew to catch up with him, but they were too far behind and marked by Slytherin Chasers. James heard the sinister whistling of a Bludger nearing his head, and threw himself into a tight roll. The Bludger screamed past, followed closely by a Beater, but just as James righted himself someone collided with his right shoulder.

The Slytherin Chaser was certainly quick, he'd give her that — and she had bony shoulders. She swooped around him and went to knock into him again from his right side, hoping to dislodge the Quaffle from his grip; James jerked his broom upward, then still further — he did a complete backwards loop around her, and zoomed off beneath her. He heard Andrea's voice from his right, letting him know she was there, and saw the Keeper beginning to shoot towards him — he swerved as if to aim for the right-hand hoop, and yelled "Switch!" to Andrea. She understood, and shot to his left — just as she passed, he tossed the Quaffle lightly, letting her snag the ball and put it through the wide-open left-hand goal hoop.

The game continued for another hour or so — James never really tried to keep track of time, just kept going until the whistle blew. The Snitch was spotted once, but nothing came of it; the Gryffindor Chasers continued to score, putting the points at a hundred to twenty in their favor. But they could never get overconfident, James reminded himself, as he put on an extra burst of speed to catch up to a Slytherin Chaser with the Quaffle. The Snitch was worth one-hundred-fifty points, and if Emma didn't catch it, Gryffindor could still lose. And the championship was about more than wins and losses: a team had to score to win the Cup, and that was what James had his mind on. Nothing less would do. The Quaffle spun through the air just ahead of him, headed from the hands of one Chaser to the next. James flattened himself to his broom, reaching out his right hand—

SMASH! James felt a second of just the collision, before a sickening pain flashed through his hand and arm. He yelled, and reflexively pulled his hand close to his chest. His broom spun slightly in the air, knocked off course by the collision and without direction from him. The Slytherin Beater flew off again — the hit hadn't been entirely illegal, not even a real block, and no one seemed to have noticed the bat slamming down on James' outstretched hand…

There wasn't going to be a time-out called, the game was going on. Grimly James clutched the handle of his broom with his left hand and urged it forward again, clenching his teeth. If that was how it was going to be, he'd simply have to disappoint. The Slytherin Chasers were nearing McKenzie Finnegan at the hoops, and he could see that Beater coming around again, in prime position to pelt a Bludger at her—

He shot forward, ramming into a green-clad Chaser with his left shoulder, jarring the other player off course just in time to grab the incoming Quaffle with his uninjured left hand. Swiftly James tucked the ball under his right arm and darted upward, out of the way of the two Chasers about to close in on him, and pelted back up the pitch. Robin appeared just below him, and James loosened his hold, allowing the Quaffle to drop into his teammate's hands. He ducked another Bludger and zoomed ahead to catch up with Robin, keeping to the left so that he could receive the ball with his working hand — when a blur of green and black shot past him, spinning him around. Automatically James' eyes noted the name on the player's robes, and realized with a lurch that it was the Slytherin Seeker, racing toward the glitter of gold that Emma had missed, and she was too far away to catch up…

James threw himself flat to his broom. "C'mon, c'mon, c'mon!" he urged it faster and faster, closing in on the Slytherin Seeker — ten meters — five — he only had to distract him, just to get Emma the few seconds she needed — James put on a burst of speed, zoomed underneath the Slytherin Seeker, and hauled sharply up on his broom with both hands, his right screaming in pain. He whipped right past the Seeker's nose, causing him to lean sharply back with a surprised yelp — and Emma shot past them both, and her hand closed around the tiny golden Snitch.

The whistle blew, sharp and crystal clear. Every sound in the stadium crashed in on James, the mad cheers from the Gryffindor stands, the groans of defeat from the Slytherins. The team shouting and converging, triumphant. Emma threw her arm around James' shoulders before they even hit the ground, the Snitch's tiny wings tickling his face. James tucked his injured hand close to his chest, too giddy to register the pain, to stop grinning. Sirius slung his arm around James' shoulders, ruffling his hair enthusiastically; Remus and Peter fought their way through the crowd to jump up and down with the rest of their House. James laughed, as he always did, at the sight of Remus laying aside his dignity for the sake of a little fun. It was good for the boy.

* * *

><p><em><span>Author's note<span>: Terribly sorry for no update the past few days, FF wasn't letting me on my page to upload this. However, writing this while the song 'Test Drive' from How to Train Your Dragon played was simply epic. I've been wanting to do another Quidditch chapter for a while — since the last one was mostly commentary, I changed it up. We've never seen it from a Chaser's point of view before (officially anyway). I took a little inspiration from my rugby team — if only rugby were played in 3-D, backs could be Chasers. Anyway, this was fun to write. Hope you guys liked it, too.  
><em>_I have just realized, though, that I've been doing a lot of James' POV. Nothing wrong with him, but it's time to switch. No idea yet what tomorrow's (ooh… later today? Just realized it's past midnight… oops) chapter will be, so I'll take reviewer suggestions into consideration, and the POV shall be decided by what the popular vote seems to be at the time I start writing._

_That said, thank you so much to everyone who reviewed the last couple chapters. I wasn't able to reply to some that I wanted to, so here's a few responses:  
><em>_First of all, I am as delighted as **many people** seem to be at the beginnings of becoming Animagi.  
><em>_**Angie Kangaroo** — on chapter 20: yes, I did have Goblet of Fire sitting in my lap as I wrote their dialogue. It was too tempting, and those were some of my favorite scenes ever. Also: I know! The Patronuses are coming! I've actually already written that scene, I was so excited; but I planned for it to be in late third or early fourth year, because while I can't wait to call them by their nicknames, it is very advanced magic. Remus was very impressed that Harry managed it as a third year — and the Marauders are going to have to teach themselves.  
><em>_**Animagus of a doe**: with third year and the opportunities of going to Hogsmeade, of course there will be the opportunity for young Jamesie to ask Lily out… and possibly get slapped : ) I will keep it in mind — with three or four years of rejection, yes, we'll see at least one at some point. It might be good for him.  
><em>_Plus, to everyone and especially to **Fantasy Wizard Witch** and **Sapphire Leo**: thanks so much, you guys, for sticking with me. The reviews mean a lot to me and I'm really, really glad to hear that you all like this story._

_Whoo, long note. Sorry! See ya next time!_


	23. Arrangements

"Mr. Potter! Mr. Black!"

James and Sirius sat bolt upright.

"Dementors!" James blurted, just as Sirius shouted out "Hinkypunks!"

"Actually, seven-sixty-two," James said, straightening his glasses as the class laughed.

Professor Kippens blinked rapidly, then took off his own glasses and cleaned them. "Could you boys be persuaded to pay attention?" he said, no longer sounding as sharp and confident.

Sirius bit his lip to keep from snickering as James' face fell, taking on his "innocent wounded" look. "But I knew the answer!"

"Hinkypunks were not the answer!" Kippens said hotly. "You did not even know the question!"

"I said hinkypunks," Sirius drawled. "Who's paying attention?" he added, not quite so under his breath that no one heard him.

Remus kicked Sirius under their desk, as James' innocent look twitched, fighting his desire to laugh. "You asked what year the first Committee for Disposal of Dangerous Magical Creatures held an intervention, trial, and execution, Professor," he replied. "The year seven hundred, sixty-two, trial of a rogue sphinx in Egypt."

Professor Kippens glared at him for a moment, then turned abruptly away to continue his lecture. He pretended to ignore the snorts and snuffles from the back of the room as the two black-haired boys tried to keep their snickering to minimum volume.

"Really though," Sirius chuckled, "how on earth did you know that, 'cos if you've read this year's book, I really am a hinkypunk."

"I can read," James said in an affronted voice. Then he grinned. "That was in one of the Time-Turner Mystery series. Anyway, this is more interesting: where's last night's passage, about halfway down the left-hand side fifth floor corridor?"

"Yeah," Sirius muttered, leaning over to look as James sketched it down with his quill. "And it leads down to the first floor… ends here under the stairs at that portrait of the red dog."

James glanced warily at their professor; assured that Kippens was now pretending that James and Sirius didn't exist, he murmured, "there has to be more than two secret passages _out _of the castle. All we've got is the one to the Shack and that spidery tunnel behind the suit of armor that leads down to the boathouses. That's the most boring secret passage ever."

"It was probably meant as an escape route," Remus whispered. "In case of a siege or something."

"Nice of you to join us, Remus," Sirius beamed at him.

"You know what we really need to find?" Peter chimed in. "A passage into Honeyduke's."

"_Yeah!"_

"_Sh!"_

All four Marauders were suddenly very studious in their note-taking. Professor Kippens glared suspiciously at them, but then went to turn away. Sirius spotted an ideal opportunity to interrupt the World's Most Boring DADA Lecture — honestly, it was like Binns had taken over the class — and his hand shot into the air. "Erm…" with the air of a man doing something he will most certainly regret, Professor Kippens sighed. "Yes, Mr. Black?"

"Professor," Sirius began promptly, "when are we going to start actually practicing some stuff to defend ourselves from all the creatures and things you're telling us about?"

The class murmured in assent. Remus and James shot Sirius amused glanced — they knew that Sirius had no need to practice any of the magic Kippens was currently trying to teach them. The teacher glared at him. "You are in third year, Mr. Black. There is plenty of time to learn practical defenses once you know what you might come up against. Now, without any further interruptions…"

Sirius dropped back with a groan. "This class is pointless," he muttered.

"I think Remus has the right idea," James said, nodding at their bookish friend. Remus was indeed taking notes — but his notes appeared to be coming from an open tomes on the table beside him. James stretched out to peek under the front cover.

"Countercurses and antijinxes," he reported in a whisper. He tapped his quill feather against his chin, looking thoughtful. "Yes, I do believe he has the right idea. I need some more advanced books."

"I'd suggest going to the library," Sirius muttered, "but that would go against nearly everything I stand for." He sighed dramatically. "Ask Remus, he loves the chance to get us books for Christmas."

James grinned at him. "You should come home with me for Christmas," he said out of the blue. "Dad can show us some stuff; he's an Auror, you know…"

Sirius doodled intently on a corner of his paper, knowing that if he looked up at James the gnawing feeling in his stomach would be clear in his eyes. "I dunno if that's a good idea," he said slowly. However much the thought of staying at Hogwarts alone for the holidays hurt, going back to Grimmauld Place for three weeks was unthinkable. "Your dad might not be keen on teaching me anything, James… it's just, well… he's probably put a bunch of my relatives in Azkaban." He tried for a smile, and knew that the effort was cynical at best. "Not a good conversation piece, that…"

James studied him quietly. "I don't think so, Sirius. My parents like you — all of you. They were a little surprised when I told them what your last name was, but they know you're not like all your relatives. They liked you a lot when you came over during the summers."

"Christmas is different," Sirius muttered, now completely inking over the corner of his parchment, wondering why the hell he was trying to make this difficult. Was it really hard for him to be happy? He thought bitterly. "I don't—"

"For Merlin's sake, Sirius, I'm trying to invite you over for Christmas, I know you won't go back to your house and it'd be depressing if you were here alone. Don't make my Christmas sad, Sirius."

Sirius snorted at the attempt at puppy eyes. "It's all about you, isn't it?" he teased. "And I do that way better."

"Do not, and yes it is." James nodded happily. "So you're coming. Good, 'cos I've already told Mum to expect you. Right then, so we haven't even drawn the Transfiguration hall yet, and there's that one…"

The two mischief-makers continued sketching their map of the school — the first draft of an epic endeavor — ignoring and ignored by this year's incompetent model of the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. It was a good arrangement, really, for all involved.

* * *

><p><em>Author's note: I am so terribly sorry for my absence, especially because I don't have tests as an excuse. I admit I got sucked into a new TV series — but now I've done zero homework or writing, watched three seasons in a couple days, and they've killed off two my favorite characters, one of them being the funny one and the only romance that I shipped… so be glad this update isn't seriously depressing. Sigh. Tear. Oh, well. Now I'm back! Won't happen again. (Probably.) And the posts will be better next time, when I'm not so short on time.<em>

_Thanks so much to Animagus of a doe, Angie Kangaroo, GoMaraudersandLily, Fantasy Wizard Witch, and Sapphire Leo for leaving reviews! You guys are awesome, I'm sorry for the long absence._


	24. Just a Day

"All I'm saying is, the Cleansweep's better."

"And all I'm saying is, you're daft."

"Sirius, have you ever seen an older-model Comet? Like the One-Thirty, the school's got some and I can _walk _faster than it flies."

"That's invalid 'cos you never _walk _anywhere, anyway, you just run like a hamster on drugs. So they lose some speed, at least the brakes and charms don't start to fail!"

"That was just a few Cleansweep Two's, you can't judge them all…"

Remus shook his head fondly, glancing up from his notes. "How long d'you reckon they can keep this up?" he muttered, his voice slightly hoarse from the full moon a few nights ago.

Peter grinned as he glanced at their black-haired friends. "Well, I'd say not long, except this is already an ongoing argument, isn't it?" James and Sirius had never really argued, but what were friends for if not a little good-natured bickering on a pointless subject now and again? Brooms and Quidditch were the usual. Occasionally Remus would offer a comment, if he felt like prodding on or finishing off the debates, but Peter's limited knowledge meant that he never participated past the opening round. Once James and Sirius started rattling off numbers and names, make and model, Peter was lost, and just laughed along at the friendly ribbing.

The sound of approaching footsteps made the four of them look up, squinting slightly in the bright sunlight. A redheaded Gryffindor girl had entered the shade of the beech tree where they lounged, and offered a small wave.

"Hi, Remus," she greeted, ignoring the others despite the fact that James and Sirius had even stopped their debate to give her their attention — at least, James' attention. Peter noticed that Sirius was just rolling his eyes at James.

"Hey, Evans," James spoke up. She flicked him a wary glance. "D'you want to go to Hogsmeade with me sometime?" he continued, undaunted by the cool green gaze. "Next trip's in a few weeks."

"No, thanks," she said politely. She reached into her bag and pulled out a couple sheets of parchment. "Here are the notes we took in Ancient Runes, Remus. I copied them for you, so feel free to keep these."

"You didn't have to do that," Remus protested slightly, accepting the notes.

Evans smiled. "No, it's fine, I think I learn it better when I copy it again. Anyway, it's good you're back. How's your mum?"

"Doing better," Remus replied, "for now. Thanks again, Lily."

"No problem at all. See you around." She walked off again, with a little wave. As she reached the lake, an unpleasantly familiar Slytherin stood up from another group and tagged along with her.

"Bad luck, mate," Sirius drawled. "Maybe next time."

James shrugged. "Just a thought." He laced his hands behind his head. "What d'you think, though, Sirius, has Snivellus had too much of a quiet time lately?"

Sirius grinned devilishly. "_I've _had too much quiet, in any case. This place could use some livening up."

Peter sat forward, eager to participate. He thought he saw a faint frown cross Remus' face; but then the young werewolf reached out with the sheaf of notes and whacked James on the head. "A lesson for you," he ordered. "_These _are good notes. Observe the neat handwriting, comprehensiveness, and lack of Golden Snitch doodles."

"I don't _only _draw the Snitch," James said in an affronted voice. "Remus, it's like you don't appreciate my artistic skills."

"If you would confine them to your own paper, I would appreciate them all the more," Remus muttered under his breath, tucking Evans' notes carefully into his textbook.

Sirius gave a dramatic sigh. "Where did we go wrong, little bookworm?"

Remus flashed a grin. "So many places, Sirius, it would be impossible to list them all."

"You're hilarious," Sirius rolled his eyes as James and Peter laughed. "Now, back down to business, boys…"

* * *

><p><em>Author's note: sorry for the shortness of this piece. I felt bad not updating today. Geez, year three seemed like it'd be more exciting, but I kind of can't wait for fourth… anyway. Thanks so much to the reviewers — you've got Brilliant Incandescence to thank for the guilty update today (I was kind of going to keep watching Torchwood tonight and write something better tomorrow…) Thanks also to Angie Kangaroo, GoMaraudersandLily, Katiekkxd, CuriousOwlEyes, and of course Sapphire Leo for reviewing and encouraging me to write some more this week. You guys are brilliant. Thanks a ton. <em>

_See ya later!_


	25. Lonely Summer

"Mum!"

"I've told you, Peter, you shouldn't be listening to that," Mrs. Pettigrew snapped, taking the radio off the table. "Half of it's rubbish and the other half is designed to frighten people." She stowed it in a cabinet, which she locked with her wand.

"Mum, I'm not scared," Peter told her boldly. "I just want to know what's going on, and you've stopped taking the _Daily Prophet, _too. Where else am I going to get news?"

"What about those friends of yours?" she sighed. "Potter at least must have something to tell you."

Peter dropped his eyes, fiddling with the corner of the tablecloth. "He's not allowed, Mum, his dad would get in trouble if he started spreading stories about the Auror office… and anyway, they've been busy. Some people actually _do _things over the summer," he added petulantly.

His mother sighed. "Peter, we did you to your Auntie Helen's last week—"

"She lives in Bristol! That's not exciting! We go see her every year."

She sighed again. "Peter, I'm sorry, alright? Now I haven't got time for this, I'm late for work as it is. If I find you've got that radio out again when I get home, I really will take your wand this time, I mean it. See you later, dear."

"Bye," Peter muttered, not looking up until she was gone. He trudged up to his room, and stood in the doorway looking blankly at the mess. Papers were strewn about — mostly unfinished letters, interspersed with attempts at his summer homework. Nothing had distracted him for long. He hadn't heard as much from his friends as he had in the past summers; that, coupled with the unusual heavy fog which pressed around his country home, made Peter feel like the last person on Earth.

He flopped down onto his bed with a sigh. Things were changing in the Wizarding world, he knew that much — and not for the better. From all that he could gather, people were scared. But banned from the news, he didn't know why. Not that the news had been enlightening while it had lasted, he thought glumly.

He rolled onto his side, unable to stop wondering how the changes outside were going to affect Hogwarts. Was this why his friends had stopped writing? Were they all just up to better, more exciting things? Peter sighed, wondering if he would hear about it at school — or if their friendship would just fall apart at the seams.

"Like everyone else seems to be doing," he muttered to the empty room.

…

The dirt felt warm and crumbly under his hands — paws? — no, hands, they were hands again. He sucked in the cool night air, and coughed. It no longer carried the same intimate, instinctive knowledge of the world around him; it was just oxygen. He could hear his own rasping breath, but little else. His ears no longer picked up tiny nuances of sound from far away. His arms trembled under his own weight. He had been stuffed back into this body, weak and shivering, cut off from the natural world again, practically deaf and blind…

And god, it was a relief.

He lifted his head, taking a deep breath, and slowly stood up. He wrapped his arms around himself. He was Remus — he was Remus Lupin, and he was human again. It was just starting to get light; he could see the early pale grey light coming through the trees now. Summers were both better and worse because of the shorter nights. Better because he spent less time as a wolf, had less time to be out of control. Worse because he had been ripped apart twice in the space of a few hours, and now he was weak and nauseous and aching. The longer winter nights let him acclimate more to his own body: but it also gave him more time to tear himself apart with frustration.

With a faint _pop_, his mother appeared a few meters away. The Ministry required a special Trace to be put on a young werewolf, and Remus' mother had assumed the burden of it. She always told him that she was glad to know where he was, that she was glad that she could come and get him when the transformation was over — but he saw the sleepless circles under her eyes, and guilt pressed heavily down on him.

"Come on, dear," she murmured, wrapping a cloak around his shoulders. "You'll be alright."

She said that every time. Remus tried to appreciate it as much as he had when he was younger. But recently, he had come to realize that it was just one more lie.

…

"Why d'you keep doing it?"

Sirius grinned wryly at his younger brother, though it hurt. "I suppose I just can't help it."

Regulus shook his head. "Maybe you're just an idiot."

Sirius raised an eyebrow. "Ouch, little brother."

"I can't think of another reasonable explanation!"

Sirius shrugged and flopped down on his bed. It had never been a very comfortable bed, but he liked it even less because of the dreary black curtains. An idea popped into his head, and Sirius reached for his wand.

Regulus watched him with huge eyes. "You're not allowed to do magic!" he hissed.

"Ministry can't tell it was me," Sirius said smugly, "and Father and Mother dearest will never tell, they're supposed to have control over me." He flicked his wand, concentrating on the curtains. "Watch and learn, Reg. Or, if you don't want to be accomplice, bugger off."

Regulus hesitated for a moment — then he shut the door behind him. Sirius heard his feet pattering away down the hall, and sighed. It was done — he had lost his little brother to Slytherin, Sirius thought sadly, and there was no getting him back. He was too much of his parents' son, and he wanted to be.

"Screw him," Sirius said fiercely to himself. "Now, how about red and gold…"

He raised his wand, ignoring the bruises that appeared as his sleeve fell down. He'd get in trouble for the hangings, too, but he had stopped caring a while ago. Just one more thing that made him different from his idiot brother.

…

James stared at the picture in his hands, wondering what on earth she had done to deserve it.

The woman in the picture held a young boy on her shoulders. They both had black hair — his sticking up every which way, hers curling with wild abandon. He didn't have glasses yet, but the mischievous light in his hazel eyes remained the same. In fact, both sets of hazel eyes had that twinkle: she had helped him play his best pranks on their family, including the one where he turned his ancient great-aunt's favorite fluffy, pampered white cat a bright blue with purple spots. That had been how many years ago, now? Five-year-old James had gone through one of those phases of baby magic, when getting hiccups would cause all manner of odd little things to happen. Rilla had tickled little James until he hiccupped; then the two of them had laughed themselves silly at the blue-and-purple cat.

_Arillana Dorothea Annette Potter_

_Loved and Honored_

_March 22, 1952 — June 9, 1974_

That was what the stone had written on it.

_Rilla and James strike again! Summer 1965_

That was what was scrawled on the back of the picture.

James rubbed his sleeve across his face, surprised that it came away so wet. He hadn't noticed he was crying, but he didn't feel ashamed. Some of his cousins might have teased him for it. Rilla wouldn't have minded.

It was his turn. He stumbled a little on the grass as he knelt down. He didn't have anything to say: he just propped the photo carefully against the smooth grey stone.

Arillana Dorothea Annette Potter.

His cousin Rilla.

A fighter and a prankster. She had believed in a cause, and she had died fighting for it. She had told James only a little bit about it — only a little. He didn't really know the reason she had died for.

Bad things happened to good people. He'd been told that before, but it had never hit him like this. Like a slap across the face, like a fall into cold water, like… like…

Like losing someone you loved and having no idea why, _why _she was really taken from you.

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><p><em>Author's note: Thank you so very much to Fantasy Wizard Witch, Angie Kangaroo, GoMaraudersandLily, Sapphire Leo, Son of Whitebeard, Animagus of a doe, and brilliant incandescence for leaving reviews. I do enjoy having a couple of those little drabbles like last chapter, and I'm glad you guys liked it too. This one is some of that depressing that I sort of warned you about - they're growing up under the shadow of a war, after all. Don't worry, I won't go too dark - not yet. There are still lots of laughs in their school years ahead. As you probably worked out, this chapter happens between third and fourth year. I might've rushed a bit to the end of the year, but this does mean that Animagus whatnot is around the corner! And, sorry for not updating in several days, I've been sick and so not up to writing anything at all...<em>

_Anyway, that's long enough. See ya next time!_


	26. Pledged

Remus was the last to enter their dormitory, smiling slightly at the welcome familiarity. The four-poster beds, the tall windows and red curtains. Their trunks had been brought up for them: half of Sirius' belongings were already scattered around the room as he tossed them around to get to his pajamas. Remus smiled gently at the friendly, yawn-punctuated banter.

"Budge over, Rem," James ordered, advancing on the door brandishing his wand and a bit of parchment. Remus stood aside and watched as James reattached the Sticking Charm between the door and the back of the paper. It wasn't the neatest piece of work, a scrap of parchment covered in the handwriting of four third-year boys, but it was very nearly their dearest and most prized collective possession — another secret between the four Marauders.

_This is the __**Code of the Marauders**__. While the undersigned are Marauders, they hold to this Code and the rules stated below, above all other forms of agreement. Failure to hold to this Code will result in at minimum a vengeance prank on the offending Marauder, and at maximum the revocation of Marauder status._

**1. The Marauders must always be up to no good.**

**_2. The Marauders must hold loyalty and friendship to each other above all else. No one comes between the Marauders._**

**_3. Marauders must never blame each other for something beyond their control._**

4. The Marauders are not allowed to ditch each other. If a Marauder is skipping something important, there had better be a watertight reason.

_5. The Marauders will not keep secrets from each other. That being said, the Marauders shall keep every secret told to them in confidence by another Marauder, unless explicit permission is given to reveal the secret._

6. While pranking is part of the job description, no Marauder should ever act with the intention of grievously harming anyone.

**7. If one Marauder is in trouble / insulted / hurt / struggling in any way, it is the duty of all Marauders to come to their aid and/or assist in their revenge.**

**8. Marauders will not air their personal grievances to the general public.** _The other Marauders must listen and help in whatever way they can._

**_9. The Marauders hold to the traits of Godric Gryffindor: bravery, daring, loyalty, chivalry._**

_10. The _Marauders **shall_ n_**_**ever**, __ever _betray **each _other_**_._

_We henceforth give our signatures and our solemn oaths that we will uphold this code as long as we remain Marauders — which is to say, forever._

_**James Potter** _**Sirius Black** _Remus Lupin _Peter Pettigrew

"We'll be adding our codenames this year," James said confidently. "We're going to work on our Patronuses every chance we get — and I borrowed one of Dad's books on Occlumency and Legilimency."

"May I borrow it?" Remus asked, intrigued. Since he would not be focusing on becoming an Animagus, he'd decided that he was going to be good at the rest of it. James and Sirius could be naturally brilliant all they wanted, but Remus was going to know this stuff inside and out.

"Sure. What d'you think of this year's DADA teacher?"

Remus recalled the middle-aged, whipcord witch in crisp dark blue robes, regarding the Welcome Feast with sharp eyes. "I don't want to cross her," he said honestly. "Reminds me of McGonagall." James grinned, the grin that made Remus sigh with resignation. "You know, if she could really teach us stuff, you might want to leave her alone."

"I'm not looking for trouble," James said airily, his eyes wide and innocent. Remus snorted.

"We just want to know if she's got a sense of humor," Sirius supplied from across the room."

"Don't worry so much, Rem, we'll be her favorites," James promised." He admired his handiwork on the back of the door for another moment, then turned and looked at Remus. "You alright?" he asked, lowering his voice.

Remus fought down a confused surge of both irritation and gratitude. "I'm not made of glass, James," he said shortly. Then he sighed. "I'm fine. Trust me."

James quirked an eyebrow, but he didn't say anything more; he clapped Remus on the shoulder and then walked past him, headed for his four-poster bed. Remus remained standing there for a moment, studying their Code hung on the back of the door. The most important scrap of paper in the world, he'd called it last year when they'd written it. And that it was — especially when he needed a corporeal reminder that somebody knew him and cared about him.

"You gonna stand there all night?" Sirius queried from across the room.

Remus turned, startled. "Oh — of course not."

"Couldn't close the curtains while you're up, could you?" Peter mumbled from the depths of his blankets.

Out of habit, Remus glanced at the moon as he stood at the window. A waning half-moon, meaning that he still had quite a bit of time before the next transformation. That would fall a few weeks into classes, then, so he'd have time to settle in but he'd have to make sure his homework was finished early…

Remus caught himself, and yanked the curtains shut.

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><p><em>Author's note: I've only had about eight thousand too many things going on at once lately, but I do apologize for the length of my absence. I've had to go find a Risen Mitten for my muse (those of you who understand that reference will know where my scraps of free time have been wasted lately). Even the characters I'm borrowing seem to be pissed at my negligence, so I had trouble brushing the dust off. Gah. Anyway. So sorry for how long it's been. Fingers crossed that I'll be quicker with the next one, and leave some suggestions if you have them — could help to get some new inspiration for moments.<em>


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